could come to be used

[GoldfishLord]

Moreover, as museums and universities drew further apart toward the end of the nineteenth century, and as the idea of objects as a privileged route to knowing the world went into decline, collecting began to lose its status as a worthy intellectual pursuit, especially in the sciences. The really interesting and important aspects of science were increasingly those invisible to the naked eye, and the classification of things collected no longer promised to produce cutting-edge knowledge (Conn 1998). The term “butterfly collecting” could come to be used with the adjective “mere” to indicate a pursuit of secondary academic status.

(Retrieved from https://www.google.co.kr/search?q="...VrKBcUQ_AUoBnoECAIQBg&biw=412&bih=678&dpr=3.5 )
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I'd like to know if "could come to" means "may possibly become" or "was able to become".

 

[GoesStation]

I'd like to know if "could come to" means "may possibly become" or "was able to become".

The latter, in this context.

 

[Tdol]

I suppose it's a less definite form than would.