plenipotentiary

noun

a person, especially a diplomatic agent, invested with full power or authority to transact business on behalf of another.

adjective

invested with full power or authority, as a diplomatic agent.

conferring or bestowing full power, as a commission.

absolute or full, as power.

Origin:
1635–45; < Medieval Latin plēnipotentiārius. See plenipotent, -i-, -ary

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Collins

World English Dictionary

plenipotentiary (ˌplɛnɪpəˈtɛnʃərɪ)

—*adj*
1.	(esp of a diplomatic envoy) invested with or possessing full power or authority
2.	conferring full power or authority
3.	(of power or authority) full; absolute

—n , -aries
4.	See also envoy a person invested with full authority to transact business, esp a diplomat authorized to represent a country

[C17: from Medieval Latin plēnipotentiārius, from Latin plēnus full + potentiapower]

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

plenipotentiary

c.1645, from M.L. plenipotentiarius "having full power," from L. plenus "full" (see plenary) + potentem "powerful" (see potent).

Matching Quote

"What strikes one about the Autobiography is its complete lack of sentimentality. Franklin had a pronounced character which he presented very acutely, but he did not think of himself as primarily a unique inner self. He was all his many roles, although he put the first above all others, as he wrote in his testament: "I, Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, printer, late Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the court of France, now President of Pennsylvania." There is much pride of achievement in this, but no vanity at all. It is also a wholly social ego.... The distance between Franklin and Hawthorne is immense. Franklin was the sum of his actions, while Hawthorne and we have romantic egos that cannot bear the notion that one's manner of acting one's roles measures true character. For Hawthorne there was a private self that was one's true, supreme, and most honest part. That is why he thought it important to take the "private and domestic view of public men," and why the discrepancy between the two made him so bitter. For Franklin the domestic self was one among several. No remnants of an immortal soul bothered him, and he needed no replacement for it. His private affections were not politically relevant."

-Judith K. Shklar

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EE & MP envoy extraordinary

plenipotentiary

plen·i·po·ten·ti·ar·y