posse US UK
pos·se (ps)
n.
1. A group of people summoned by a sheriff to aid in law enforcement.
2. A search party.
3. A gang involved in crimes such as running guns and illegal narcotics trafficking.
4. Slang A group of friends or associates.
[Short for Medieval Latin posse comitts : Medieval Latin posse, power, body of men (from Latin, to be able; see potent) + comitts, genitive of comittus, county.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
posse (ˈpɒsɪ)
n
1. (Law) Also called: posse comitatus US the able-bodied men of a district assembled together and forming a group upon whom the sheriff may call for assistance in maintaining law and order
2. (Law) law possibility (esp in the phrase in posse)
3. a Jamaican street gang in the US
4. a group of friends or associates
[C16: from Medieval Latin (n): power, strength, from Latin (vb): to be able, have power]
posse
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: posse
A few years ago I broke my shoulder and received a get well card from a group of people I ate with about once a week. It was signed, "Your posse" plus their signatures. The word is being used more and more in that sense around here, but until that developed, we old-timers thought of a gang of men after robbers. As kids, and sometimes as adults, we watched a lot of westerns.
pl
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- Senior Lexiterian
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Re: posse
Perry. How old ARE you? Probably as old as me. That's ALL that was on TV in the 1950s. Westerns. I read that at its peak there were 50 Westerns on TV each week. But posses were not always law abiding and at times turned in to lynch mobs. To-wit: The Ox-bow Incident.
William A. Hupy
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