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potable (adj.)[potable 词源字典]: early 15c., from Old French potable (14c.) and directly from Late Latin potabilis "drinkable," from Latin potare "to drink" (see potion).[potable etymology, potable origin, 英语词源]
potage (n.): "thick soup," 1560s, from French potage "soup, broth" (see pottage, which is an earlier English borrowing of the same French word).
potamo-: word-forming element meaning "river," from comb. form of Greek potamos "river," perhaps literally "rushing water," from PIE *pet- "to rush, to fly" (see petition).
potamology (n.): "the study of rivers," 1829, from potamo- + -logy.
potash (n.): 1751, earlier -pot-ashes (1640s), a loan-translation of older Dutch potaschen, literally "pot ashes" (16c.); so called because it was originally obtained by soaking wood ashes in water and evaporating the mixture in an iron pot. Compare German Pottasche, Danish potaske, Swedish pottaska, all also from Dutch. See also potassium. French potasse (1570s), Italian potassa are Germanic loan-words. The original plural was pot-ashes.
potassium (n.): metallic element, 1807, coined by English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) from Modern Latin potassa, Latinized form of potash (q.v.). Davy first isolated it from potash. Symbol K is from Latin kalium "potash," from Arabic al-qaliy "the ashes, burnt ashes" (see alkali).
potation (n.): early 15c., from Old French potacion, from Latin potationem (nom. potatio) "a drinking; poisonous drink, potion," noun of action from past participle stem of potare "to drink" (see potion).
potato (n.): 1560s, from Spanish patata, from a Carib language of Haiti batata "sweet potato." Sweet potatoes were first to be introduced to Europe; in cultivation in Spain by mid-16c.; in Virginia by 1648. Early 16c. Portuguese traders carried the crop to all their shipping ports and the sweet potato was quickly adopted from Africa to India and Java.

The name later (1590s) was extended to the common white potato, from Peru, which was at first (mistakenly) called Virginia potato, or, because at first it was of minor importance compared to the sweet potato, bastard potato. Spanish invaders in Peru began to use white potatoes as cheap food for sailors 1530s. The first potato from South America reached Pope Paul III in 1540; grown in France at first as an ornamental plant. According to popular tradition, introduced to Ireland 1565 by John Hawkins. Brought to England from Colombia by Sir Thomas Herriot, 1586.

German kartoffel (17c.) is a dissimilation from tartoffel, ultimately from Italian tartufolo (Vulgar Latin *territuberem), originally "truffle." Frederick II forced its cultivation on Prussian peasants in 1743. The French is pomme de terre, literally "earth-apple;" a Swedish dialectal word for "potato" is jordpäron, literally "earth-pear."

Colloquial pronunciation tater is attested in print from 1759. Potato chip (n.) attested from 1879. To drop (something) like a hot potato is from 1824. Children's counting-out rhyme that begins one potato, two potato first recorded 1885 in Canada. Slang potato trap "mouth" attested from 1785.
potboiler (n.): also pot-boiler, 1864 in the figurative literary sense, from pot (n.1) + agent noun from boil (v.). The notion is of something one writes solely to put food on the table.
poteen (n.): "illicit whiskey," 1812, from Irish poitin "little pot," suggesting distillation in small quantities, from English pot (n.1) "vessel" + diminutive suffix -in, -een.
Potemkin: in reference to Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin (1739-1791), favorite of Catherine II of Russia, especially in reference to the sham villages supposedly erected under his orders for the empressâ tour of Crimea (1787) to create an impression of prosperity and progress. The silent film "Battleship Potemkin" dates from 1925, depicting (with elaboration) events of 1905 and the mutiny of a Russian battleship named for the Tsarist minister.
potence (n.): "potency," early 15c., from Old French potence "power," from Latin potentia (see potent).
potency (n.): mid-15c., from Latin potentia "power," from potentem "potent" (see potent).
potent (adj.): early 15c., from Latin potentem (nominative potens) "powerful," present participle of *potere "be powerful," from potis "powerful, able, capable; possible;" of persons, "better, preferable; chief, principal; strongest, foremost," from PIE root *poti- "powerful, lord" (cognates: Sanskrit patih "master, husband," Greek posis, Lithuanian patis "husband"). Meaning "having sexual power" is first recorded 1899.
potentate (n.): c. 1400, from Old French potentat and directly from Late Latin potentatus "a ruler," also "political power," from Latin potentatus "might, power, rule, dominion," from potentem (nominative potens) "powerful" (see potent).
potential (adj.): late 14c., "possible" (as opposed to actual), from Old French potenciel and directly from Late Latin potentialis "potential," from Latin potentia "power, might, force;" figuratively "political power, authority, influence," from potens "powerful" (see potent). The noun, meaning "that which is possible," is first attested 1817, from the adjective.
potentiality (n.): 1620s, from potential + -ity, or else from Medieval Latin potentialitas, from potentialis (see potential).
potentially (adv.): early 15c., "in possibility," opposed to actually; from potential + -ly (2).
potentiate (v.): 1817 (Coleridge) "endow with power," from Latin potentia "power, might, force" (see potential) + -ate (2) on model of German potenzieren. Related: Potentiated; potentiating; potentiation.
potentiometer (n.): 1868, a hybrid formed from comb. form of Latin potentia "power" (see potential) + Greek-derived -meter.