competency

noun

Etymology: From Late Latin competentia. Doublet of competence.

1. The ability to perform some task; competence.

   “The loan demonstrates, in regard to instrumental resources, the competency of this kingdom to the assertion of the common cause.”

   “What professional competencies do science teachers need?”

2. An individual's capacity to understand the nature and implications of their legal rights and obligations.
3. Implicit knowledge of a language’s structure.
4. A sufficient supply of something.

   “the next day they returned unsuspected, leaving their confederates to follow, and in the interim, to convay them a competencie of all things they could […]”

   “[…] it would appear that before taking this precaution Mr. Bree must have had the thrift to remove a modest competency of the gold […]”

5. A sustainable income.

   “Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.”

   “And that knights competency you haue gotten / VVith care and labour: he vvith luſt and idleneſſe / VVill bring into the ſtypend of a begger; […]”