posse

Etymology

Ellipsis of posse comitatus.

noun

1. A group or company of people, originally especially one having hostile intent; a throng, a crowd.
   It is traditional in America to criticize the schools; for more than a century, parents, self-styled experts, and educators themselves have attacked and indicted the educational system. No aspect of schooling has been more severely criticized than reading instruction. The current books have a long ancestry, and every innovation carries in its train a posse of suspicious and, one feels, unpersuadable observers. 1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, chapter 3, in How to Read a Book, Touchstone September 2014 edition, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, page 23
2. (now historical, in later use chiefly US) A group of people summoned to help law enforcement.
   Coordinate term: vigilante
   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. 1986, Donald R. Lavash, Sheriff William Brady, Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War, Sunstone Press, page 77
   While Wyatt dismounted and aimed his shotgun at Brocius, the rest of his posse retreated. 2013, Andrew C. Isenberg, Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante Life, Hill and Wang, page 165
3. (US) A search party.
4. (US, Jamaica, slang) A criminal gang.
   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. 1997, Michael D. Lyman, Organized Crime, Prentice Hall, page 287
5. (colloquial) A group of (especially young) people seen as constituting a peer group or band of associates; a gang, a group of friends.
   Hey, sir? Sir, excuse me?” The blonde was calling out to him, in imperious tones that insisted on a reply. […] She was breaking a rule of big-city life, breaking it brazenly, sure of her power, confident of her turf and posse, fearing nothing. 2002 [2001], Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Vintage, page 4
   But the few friends that I DO have are my “ride or die” chicks—my posse. 2014, April Boyd-Noronha, The Soul of a Single Parent: How to Snapback and Get Your SWAG On, AuthorHouse, page 77