Competence

[a. F. compétence ‘competencie, conueniencie, sufficiencie, aptnesse, fitnesse, agreeablenesse; also concurrencie, compettitorship’ (Cotgr.): cf. It. competentia ‘competencie, conueniencie, also contending for one same thing’ (Florio), Sp. competencia ‘competencie, corriualitie; sufficiency, conueniency’ (Minsheu); ad. L. competentia (post-class.) meeting together, agreement, symmetry, planetary conjunction; f. competent- pr. pple. of competĕre: see COMPETE v.¹ and ².]

  I.  In sense of COMPETE v.²

  † 1.  Rivalry in dignity or relative position, vying.

1594.  Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, xv. (1596), 266. Man … seeing that the angels with whom he had competence were immortall [cf. ‘Made a little lower than the angels’].

  II.  In sense of COMPETE v.¹

  † 2.  An adequate supply, a sufficiency of. Obs.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. v. 70. For competence of life I will allow you, That lacke of meanes enforce you not to euill.

1623.  Massinger, Bondman, IV. ii. A competence of land freely allotted To each man’s proper use.

1714.  Gay, What d’ye call it? Prelim. Sc. 3. I will have a ghost; nay, I will have a Competence of Ghosts.

1740.  Gray, Lett., in Poems (1775), 101. Such a private happiness (supposing a small competence of fortune) is almost always in one’s power.

  3.  A sufficiency of means for living comfortably; a comfortable living or estate; = COMPETENCY 3.

1632.  Massinger, City Madam, IV. i. I shall be enabled To make payment of my debts to all the world, And leave myself a competence.

1640–1.  Kirkcudbr. War.-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855), 65. To appoynt to hir ane competance out of hir said husband’s estate.

1742.  Young, Nt. Th., VI. 509. A competence is vital to content.

1815.  Jane Austen, Emma, I. ii. An easy competence, enough to secure the purchase of a little estate.

1871.  Blackie, Four Phases, I. 6. He had been left some small competence by his father.

1882.  Shorthouse, J. Inglesant, II. 51. Earn a competence and fame.

  b.  The condition of having sufficient means for living comfortably; easy circumstances.

1738.  Swift, Imit. Horace, II. vi (R.). Preserve, Almighty Providence! Just what you gave me, competence.

1752.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 206, ¶ 5. They … growled away their latter years in discontented competence.

1814.  Wordsw., Excursion, VI. Wks. 496/2. Robbed of competence, And her obsequious shadow, peace of mind.

1864.  Tennyson, En. Ard., 82. Seven happy years of health and competence.

  4.  Sufficiency of qualification; capacity to deal adequately with a subject.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., 291. To make men act zealously is not in the competence of law. Ibid. (1796), Lett. Noble Ld., Wks. 1842, II. 258. Conferring upon me that sort of honour, which it is alone within their competence … to bestow.

1805.  Foster, Ess., II. vi. 198. Even the experience of failure augments his competence.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. xxi. 343. To doubt my own competence to understand it.

1880.  W. B. Carpenter, in 19th Cent., 595. Naturalists of the highest competence in their respective departments.

  b.  esp. Law. The quality or position of being legally competent; legal capacity or admissibility.

1708–15.  Kersey, Competence, or Competency, in Law, the Power of a Judge, for the taking Cognisance of a Matter.

1827.  Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xvii. 312. The court of session … possessed no competence in criminal proceedings.

1886.  Sir E. Fry, in Law Times Rep., LIII. 623/1. It was within his competence to say that he would not appoint a new trustee.

  c.  Adequacy of a work; legitimacy of a logical conclusion; propriety.

1851.  Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Windows, 27. By force of his own fair work’s competence.

a. 1852.  Hamilton, Logic (1860), II. 465. It shows at a glance the competence or incompetence of any conclusion.