from Latinpotentia 'power', which in medieval Latin meant 'crutch'. du Cange; et al. (1883). "potentia 2". Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, éd. augm. Niort: L. Favre. t. 6, col. 437a, s.v. Scipio, fulcrum subalare, nostris vulgo Potence. See also Oxford English Dictionary, 1st. edition, entry "Potent (sb.¹ and a.²)".
Tu Baikui 塗白奎 (quoted by Boileau 2002:354[full citation needed]) believes the wu oracle character "was composed of two pieces of jade and originally designated a tool of divination." Citing Li Xiaoding 李孝定 that gong 工 originally pictured a "carpenter's square", Allan (1991:77)[full citation needed] argues that oracle inscriptions used wu巫 interchangeably with fang方 "square; side; place" for sacrifices to the sifang四方