In literature, “impotent” is frequently employed to underscore a sense of inefficacy, helplessness, or inadequacy—whether in physical, emotional, or metaphorical realms. Writers use the term to depict characters or forces that, despite apparent intensity, fail to exert meaningful power. For instance, it converts raw emotion into a striking image of futility, such as an “impotent incarnation of rage” that twists in a display of uncontrollable yet ineffective fury [1]. Equally, it conveys the impotence of ideals and institutions, suggesting that even communal passions like rebellion or the relentless march of time can be rendered weak or ineffective, as seen when rebels are described as “impotent rebels” [2] or when laws and discipline are portrayed as feeble [3]. The word also straddles the line between literal deficiency and symbolic failure, capturing the impotence in sexual performance, physical decline, or the inability of reason or art to fully encapsulate human experience [4, 5, 6]. Through such varied contexts, “impotent” richly deepens the portrayal of struggle against an unyielding, sometimes indifferent, reality.