transcription, транскрипция: [ ˈpɔsɪ ]
noun (Drugs) (Youth Culture) A gang of Black (especially Jamaican) youths involved in organized or violent (often drug-related) crime in the US. Now more widely in youth slang, one's gang or crowd; a group of friends. Etymology: A specialized sense of the existing word, representing a substantial shift of meaning: a posse was originally a group of people whose purpose was the enforcement of the law (and in this sense will be familiar to all lovers of Westerns). From here it developed to mean any strong band or company, was taken up in Black street slang (see below), and then came to be used specifically by police and journalists for a forceful band operating on the wrong side of the law. History and Usage: The first reports of the criminal kind of posse arose from the spread of the cocaine derivative crack in the US, and the associated rise of drug-related crime there in the mid eighties. Originating as it does from Black street slang, where it means no more than 'a gang or crowd' (and has been used since at least the early eighties), the word figured in the names of rap groups and lyrics and thereby spread to White youngsters as well, so that by the end of the decade it had become a fashionable way to refer to a group of one's friends--the people with whom one 'hangs out'. Having restrained my homeboys we walked away with dignity, but the whole posse was quite visibly in tears. City Limits 9 Oct. 1986, p. 52 Copeland's people are called the Beboes, a violent Jamaican drug posse operating big time in Queen's and Brooklyn. Newsday 17 May 1989, p. 3 You gotta mention my baby daughter AJ and the CIA dance posse. Sky Magazine Apr. 1990, p. 18