posse

英 ['p?s?] 美['pɑsi]

低頻詞暢通詞匯GRE

復數:?posses;

posse 一群，一伙

來自拉丁語posse,有權力，有能力，使能夠，詞源同possible,potent.后引申詞義一群人，一幫土匪，受美國西部電影影響該詞得以流行。

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.: 馬什的一群朋友勸他們說這是個餿主意。

3. Those on today's posse got one drink coming from the county budget!: 今天巡邏的人喝一杯縣里出錢的酒.

4. The sheriff said posse could head off the outlaws at the pass.: 那位行政司法長官說,警察們可以在關口截住那些亡命之徒.

5. Chen Zhankui battle song gallops sky, we are posse fire.: 軍工戰歌陳占奎馳騁天空, 我們是一團火.