a potiori

Adjective

a potiori (not comparable)

1. from the stronger or more important; according to the majority
2. The use of the more generic category (for agreement) with combinations of words from two or more selective categories (such as gender). For example Each boy or girl took his book., or in French Le manteau et la robe sont verts, mais les chaussures ne sont pas vertes. (The (masculine) coat and the (feminine) dress are (masculine plural) green, but the (feminine plural) shoes are not (feminine plural) green.)
3. From the most important.
   • ... 40 embrace the period from Abraham's immigration into Canaan until the departure out of Egypt , and that the sacred writers call this the period of sojourn or servitude in Egypt a potiori , i . e . from its leading characteristic .1870, Horatio Balch Hackett, A Commentary on the Original Text of the Acts of the Apostles, page 127
   • Since in their philosophy Gnostic and Neo - Platonic thought are contained as elements , the period may be a potiori designated as the patristic period or the period of Patristics . The relation of the three tendencies to each other[…]1893, Johann Eduard Erdmann, A History of Philosophy, page 286