posse

英 ['pɒsɪ] 美['pɑsi]

低频词畅通词汇GRE

复数: posses;

posse 一群，一伙

来自拉丁语posse,有权力，有能力，使能够，词源同possible,potent.后引申词义一群人，一帮土匪，受美国西部电影影响该词得以流行。

posse: posse: [17] Posse was the Latin verb for ‘be able’. It was a conflation of an earlier expression potis esse ‘be able’; and potis ‘able’ was descended from an Indo-European base *potthat also produced Sanskrit pati- ‘master, husband’ and Lithuanian patis ‘husband’. In medieval Latin posse came to be used as a noun meaning ‘power, force’.

It formed the basis of the expression posse comitātus, literally ‘force of the county’, denoting a body of men whom the sheriff of a county was empowered to raise for such purposes as suppressing a riot. The abbreviated form posse emerged at the end of the 17th century, but really came into its own in 18th- and 19th-century America.
=> possible, potent
posse (n.): 1640s (in Anglo-Latin from early 14c.), shortening of posse comitatus "the force of the county" (1620s, in Anglo-Latin from late 13c.), from Medieval Latin posse "body of men, power," from Latin posse "have power, be able" (see potent) + comitatus "of the county," genitive of Late Latin word for "court palace" (see comitatus). Modern slang meaning "small gang" is probably from Western movies.

2. A posse of Marsh's friends persuaded them that this was a bad idea.: 马什的一群朋友劝他们说这是个馊主意。

3. Those on today's posse got one drink coming from the county budget!: 今天巡逻的人喝一杯县里出钱的酒.

4. The sheriff said posse could head off the outlaws at the pass.: 那位行政司法长官说,警察们可以在关口截住那些亡命之徒.

5. Chen Zhankui battle song gallops sky, we are posse fire.: 军工战歌陈占奎驰骋天空, 我们是一团火.