Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[Cf. F.

impuissance

Lack of power; inability.

Bacon.

Their own

impuissance

and weakness.

Holland.

Noun.

Impotence; weakness.

impuissance ‎(usually uncountable, plural impuissances)

Impotence, weakness.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.8:
  This fault, for a man not to be able to know himselfe betimes, and not to feele the impuissance and extreme alteration, that age doth naturally bring, […] hath lost the reputation of the most part of the greatest men in the world.
- Philemon Holland (1552-1637)
  Their own impuissance and weakness.

impuissance f ‎(plural impuissances)