Also 5 equipolence, 8–9 æquipollence. [a. OF. equipolence, mod.Fr. équipollence, ad. L. æquipollentia, f. æquipollent-em EQUIPOLLENT.] The quality of being equipollent.
1. Equality of force, power or signification.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, IV. xlix. (1869), 199. I shal fynde in þis place countrepeis and equipollence of þe hegge of penitence.
a. 1528. Skelton, Poems, 173. That in his equipollence He judgeth him equivalent With God Omnipotent.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 242. Our Commentators missed to make a large discourse of æquipolences in this place.
1647. Hammond, Power of Keys, iii. 35. The equipollence of the word Sacerdos and Episcopus being observed.
a. 1691. Boyle, Wks., III. 612. These phænomena do much depend upon a mechanical æquipollence of pressure.
1867. Emerson, Progr. Culture, Wks. (Bohn), III. 228. There is also an equipollence of individual genius to the nation which it represents.
2. Logic. An equivalence between two or more propositions. Cf. EQUIPOLLENT 3 c.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7078. Late hym study in equipolences.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1008/1. So that non omnis, after the rule of equipollence, should be taken for as much as nullus.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 313/2. Of Reciprocation there are three kinds:… the third … equipollence.
1725. Watts, Logick, ii. § 4. 255. The Conversion, and Opposition, and Equipollence of these modal Propositions.
1851. Mansel, Proleg. Log., vi. (1860), 220. The equipollence in some cases can only be determined materially.
