poise

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
poise1

▶noun

• 1 graceful and elegant bearing.

  ■ composure and dignity of manner.

• 2 archaic balance; equilibrium.

▶verb

• 1 be or cause to be balanced or suspended.

• 2 (as adj. poised) composed and elegant or self-assured.

• 3 (be poised to do something) be ready and prepared to do something.

– origin ME (in the sense ‘weight’): from OFr. pois, peis (n.), peser (v.), from an alt. of L. pensum ‘weight’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
poise2 (abbrev.: P)

▶noun Physics a unit of dynamic viscosity, such that a tangential force of one dyne per square centimetre causes a velocity change of one centimetre per second between two parallel planes separated by one centimetre in a liquid.

– origin early 20th cent.: from the name of Jean L. M. Poiseuille (1799–1869), French physician.