# poise
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English poys, poyse, from Anglo-Norman pois, Middle French pois (“weight”) and Anglo-Norman poise, Middle French poise (“measure of weight”), from Latin pēnsāre (“to ponder, weight, think”).

### Pronunciation

* enPR: poyz, IPA: /pɔɪz/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔɪz

### Noun

poise (countable and uncountable, plural poises)
* A state of balance, equilibrium or stability.
** 1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693:plants and animals, which are all made up of and nourished by water, and perhaps never return to water again, do not keep things at a poise
* Composure; freedom from embarrassment or affectation.
* Mien; bearing or deportment of the head or body.
* A condition of hovering, or being suspended.
* (physics) A CGS unit of dynamic viscosity equal to one dyne-second per square centimetre.
** 1959, E. A. Apps, Printing Ink Technology, page 415:Letterpress and offset gloss varnishes normally have viscosities varying from 50 to 250 poises; they must stain the paper as little as possible, have insufficient tack to cause plucking, […]
* (obsolete) Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:as an huge rockie clift, / Whose false foundation waues haue washt away, / With dreadfull poyse is from the mayneland rift, / […] So downe he fell […]
* The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.
* That which causes a balance; a counterweight.
** 1674 (date written), John Dryden, “The Authors Apology for Heroique Poetry; and Poetique Licence”, in The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1677, →OCLC, page 25:As for Hyperboles, I will neither quote Lucan, nor Statius, Men of an unbounded imagination, but who often wanted the Poyze of Judgement.

#### Derived terms

* anglepoise
* centipoise
* counterpoise
* decapoise
* equipoise
* overpoise
* poiseless

#### Related terms

* peso
* pansy
* pensive
* avoirdupois

#### Translations
### Verb

poise (third-person singular simple present poises, present participle poising, simple past and past participle poised)
* (obsolete) To hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt.
** 1850, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Seaside and the Fireside:The slender, graceful spars / Poise aloft in the air.
* (obsolete) To counterpoise; to counterbalance.
** c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality
** 1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Dryden
    to poise with solid sense a sprightly wit
* (obsolete) To be of a given weight; to weigh. [14th–17th c.]
* (obsolete) To add weight to, to weigh down. [16th–18th c.]
** 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 2, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:Every man poiseth [translating poise] upon his fellowes sinne, and elevates his owne.
* (now rare) To hold (something) with or against something else in equilibrium; to balance, counterpose. [from 16th c.]
** c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:you saw her faire none els being by, / Her selfe poysd with her selfe in either eye.
* To hold (something) in equilibrium, to hold balanced and ready; to carry (something) ready to be used. [from 16th c.]
    I poised the crowbar in my hand, and waited.
    to poise the scales of a balance
** 1717, John Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; / Nor poised, did on her own foundation lie.
** 1964 November, J. H. Lucking, “The Salisbury-Exeter rationalisation—first results and local reaction”, in Modern Railways, page 331:The intention to close [Yeovil] Pen Mill was therefore abandoned and instead the economy axe was re-poised over Yeovil Junction.
* To keep (something) in equilibrium; to hold suspended or balanced. [from 17th c.]
    The rock was poised precariously on the edge of the cliff.
* To ascertain, as if by balancing; to weigh.
** 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:He cannot sincerely consider the strength, poise the weight, and discern the evidence.

#### Derived terms

* counterpoise
* outpoise
* overpoise
* poiser
* unpoised

#### Translations
### Further reading

* poise on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* speoi

## Old French
### Alternative forms

* peise (Anglo-Norman)

### Noun

poise oblique singular, f (oblique plural poises, nominative singular poise, nominative plural poises)
* weight
* a unit of measure of unknown value (which presumably varied because of the technology of the time)

#### Descendants

* → English: poise

### References

* Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX$^e$ au XV$^e$ siècle (1881) (poise)

## Portuguese
### Verb

poise
* inflection of poisar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative