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Poise vs Equipoise - What's the difference?

poise | equipoise |

As a noun poise

is (obsolete) weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.

As a verb poise

is (obsolete) to hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt.

As a proper noun equipoise is

(pharmaceutical drug|trademark) market name for the anabolic steroid boldenone undecylenate.

poise

English

Noun

(-)
  • (obsolete) Weight; an amount of weight, the amount something weighs.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.xii:
    • 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.
  • * Dryden
    • Men of unbounded imagination often want the poise of judgment.
  • A state of balance, equilibrium or stability
    • (Bentley)
  • 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 centimeter.
    • (wikipedia poise)

    Derived terms

    * centipoise

    Verb

    (pois)
  • (obsolete) To hang in equilibrium; to be balanced or suspended; hence, to be in suspense or doubt.
  • * Longfellow
    • The slender, graceful spars / Poise aloft in air.
  • (obsolete) To counterpoise; to counterbalance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality
  • * Dryden
    • to poise with solid sense a sprightly wit
  • (obsolete) To be of a given weight; to weigh.
  • (obsolete) To add weight to, to weigh down.
  • *, II.2:
    • Every man poiseth upon his fellowes sinne, and elevates his owne.
  • * 1597 , William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet , I.2:
    • 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.
    • I poised the crowbar in my hand, and waited.
    to poise the scales of a balance
  • * Dryden
    • Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; / Nor poised , did on her own foundation lie.
  • To keep (something) in equilibrium; to hold suspended or balanced.
    • The rock was poised precariously on the edge of the cliff.
  • To ascertain, as if by balancing; to weigh.
  • * South
    • He cannot sincerely consider the strength, poise the weight, and discern the evidence.

    equipoise

    English

    (wikipedia equipoise)

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Noun

    (-)
  • A state of balance; equilibrium.
  • * 1794 , ,
    • Government was unnerved, confounded, and in a manner suspended. Its equipoise was totally gone.
  • * 1869 , , Ch. IV,
    • “An easy evasion”, retorted the excited bride, who had lost her mental equipoise .
  • * 1878 , , Ch. 6,
    • The words were not without emotion, and retained their level tone as if by a careful equipoise between imminent extremes.
  • * 1927–29', ,
    • And I saw him thus absorbed in godly pursuits in the midst of business, not once or twice, but very often. I never saw him lose his state of equipoise .
  • A counterbalance.
  • * 1911 , ,
    • The cone’s not fixed, it’s hung by a chain from a lever, and balanced by an equipoise .

    Verb

  • To act or make to act as an equipoise.
  • To cause to be or stay in equipoise.