different between possie vs posse

English

Alternative forms

• pozzy

Etymology

From position +? -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Pronunciation

• /?p?zi/, p?zi
• Rhymes: -?zi

Noun

possie (plural possies)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, military slang, Digger slang) A firing position.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A position or place, especially one that is advantageous.
   • 1984, Garrie Hutchinson, A Practice Game at the Old Home Ground, from From the Outer, reprinted 2001, David Headon (editor), The Best Ever Australian Sports Writing: A 200 Year Collection, page 289,

     The fans seem happy to be back, finding their formerly favourite possies in the stands, or around the strangely sunken perimeter fence.

   • 1998, Business Review Weekly, Volume 20, Issues 47-49, page 102,

     Of course, it helps if you are very rich and regularly pay more than $40,000 for a couture outfit to be guaranteed of a near-front-row possie at the bi-annual parades (winter and summer collections).

   • 2009, Andrew Bain, Ethan Gelber, Cycling Australia, Lonely Planet, page 346,

     It?s in a good people-watching possie and if you have an early dinner between 3pm and 7pm you get a 40% discount.

Anagrams

• poises, posies

English

Etymology

Ellipsis of posse comitatus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p?.si/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?.si/
• Rhymes: -?si

Noun

posse (plural posses)

1. A group or company of people, originally especially one having hostile intent; a throng, a crowd. [from 17th c.]
2. (now historical, in later use chiefly US) A group of people summoned to help law enforcement. [from 17th c.]

   Coordinate term: vigilante

   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.20:

     He […] no sooner set his nose within the room to which he was directed, than the constable and his posse sprung upon him, before he had the least intimation of his design, or any opportunity of acting in his own defence.

   • 1986, Donald R. Lavash, Sheriff William Brady, Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War, Sunstone Press (?ISBN), page 77:

     Mathews then appointed Morton as a deputy sheriff and after a posse had been selected, they went in pursuit of the criminals. Within a few hours, the posse overtook the thieves.

   • 2013, Andrew C. Isenberg, Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante Life, Hill and Wang (?ISBN), page 165:

     While Wyatt dismounted and aimed his shotgun at Brocius, the rest of his posse retreated.

3. (US) A search party.
4. (US, Jamaican, slang) A criminal gang. [from 20th c.]
   • 1997, Michael D. Lyman, Organized Crime, Prentice Hall, page 287:

     Jamaican posses can be traced back to the Jamaican neighborhoods, and posse names correspond to the names of each neighborhood in which the gangs operate.

5. (colloquial) A group of (especially young) people seen as constituting a peer group or band of associates; a gang, a group of friends. [from 20th c.]
   • 2014, April Boyd-Noronha, The Soul of a Single Parent: How to Snapback and Get Your SWAG On, AuthorHouse (?ISBN), page 77:

     But the few friends that I DO have are my “ride or die” chicks—my posse.

Translations

Further reading

• “posse”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• posse comitatus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Jamaican posse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

Anagrams

• ESOPs, pesos, poses, s'pose, sopes, speos, spose

Jamaican Creole

Etymology

From English posse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pa.s?/
• Hyphenation: po?sse

Noun

posse (plural: posse dem, quantified: posse)

1. criminal crew; gang; posse

See also

• backitive
• crew
• Klansman
• One Order
• Shower Posse

Latin

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /?pos.se/, [?p?s???]

• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?pos.se/, [?p?s??]

Verb

posse

1. present active infinitive of possum  "to be able (to)"

Noun

posse n (indeclinable)

1. power, ability
2. potentiality, capability of being
3. (Late Latin) force, body of men
4. (Medieval Latin) territory, dominion

References

• "possum", see "Posse as subst. (poet.)" in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• posse in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin posse (“power, ability”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /?p?.s?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?p?.si/
• (South Brazil) IPA^(key): /?p?.se/
• Hyphenation: pos?se

Noun

posse f (plural posses)

1. possession, land
2. (uncountable) ownership
3. (uncountable, politics) command