ETYMOLOGY
from Latin auri- (gold) + potentem (powerful)
EXAMPLE 1
“…For to descriue thair honest Ornament,
Thair riche array, and thair habillement:
My feble wit standis in extasie,
So bene, so big, and so Auripotent,
So ground michtie it was, and precellent:
It dullis far my small capacitie.
Thairfoir I most at this time let it be.
Bot ʒe sall wit thair was na thing absent
Of gold, nor silk, that ganit sic cumpanie….”
From: Ane treatise callit The Court of Venus deuidit into four buikis,
By John Rolland, 1575
EXAMPLE 2
“…and the vexatious vigilance with which the stern lady-patronesses of the time were wont to sift the merits of candidates, were intended as a protest against the auripotent nabobs and mill-owners who came purse in hand to demand admission…”
From: Belgravia
A London Magazine
Conducted by M.E. Braddon. Vol. IV, May-June, 1871
‘The Season’
Lexicophilia 