Latency
(Lat. latere, to be hidden) (a) In metaphysics, the term latency is equivalent to potency or potentiality. See Potentiality.
(b) In epistemology and psychology, the term is applied to knowledge, e.g. memory, which lies dormant in the mind but is capable of becoming actual and explicit (see W. Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics, xviii, cited by J. M. Baldwin, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, Vol. I, p. 628). Latency in this restricted sense, designates phenomena now embraced by the term subconscious. See Subconscious. — L.W.