Part 426

Positively charged or electrified (Elec.), having a charge of positive electricity; -- opposed to negatively electrified.

Pos"i*tive*ness, n. The quality or state of being positive; reality; actualness; certainty; confidence; peremptoriness; dogmatism. See Positive, a.

Positiveness, pedantry, and ill manners.

Swift.

The positiveness of sins of commission lies both in the habitude of the will and in the executed act too; the positiveness of sins of omission is in the habitude of the will only.

Norris.

Pos"i*tiv*ism (?), n. A system of philosophy originated by M. Auguste Comte, which deals only with positives. It excludes from philosophy everything but the natural phenomena or properties of knowable things, together with their invariable relations of coexistence and succession, as occurring in time and space. Such relations are denominated laws, which are to be discovered by observation, experiment, and comparison. This philosophy holds all inquiry into causes, both efficient and final, to be useless and unprofitable.

Pos"i*tiv*ist, n. A believer in positivism. -- a. Relating to positivism.

Pos`i*tiv"i*ty (?), n. Positiveness. J. Morley.

Pos"i*ture (?; 135), n. See Posture. [Obs.]

Pos"net (?), n. [OF. poÁonet, dim. of poÁon a pot, a vessel.] A little basin; a porringer; a skillet.

{ Pos`o*log"ic (?), Pos`o*log"ic*al (?), } a. [Cf. F. posologique.] Pertaining to posology.

Po*sol"o*gy (?), n. [Gr. &?; how much + -logy: cf. F. posologie.] (Med.) The science or doctrine of doses; dosology.

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Pos"po*lite (?), n. [Pol. pospolite ruszenie a general summons to arms, an arriere-ban; pospolity general + ruszenie a stirring.] A kind of militia in Poland, consisting of the gentry, which, in case of invasion, was summoned to the defense of the country.

Poss (?), v. t. [See Push.] To push; to dash; to throw. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

A cat . . . possed them [the rats] about.

Piers Plowman.

Pos"se (?), n. See Posse comitatus.

In posse. See In posse in the Vocabulary.

||Pos"se com`i*ta"tus (?). [L. posse to be able, to have power + LL. ||comitatus a county, from comes, comitis, a count. See County, and ||Power.]

1. (Law) The power of the county, or the citizens who may be summoned by the sheriff to assist the authorities in suppressing a riot, or executing any legal precept which is forcibly opposed. Blackstone.

2. A collection of people; a throng; a rabble. [Colloq.]

The word comitatus is often omitted, and posse alone used. "A whole posse of enthusiasts." Carlyle.

As if the passion that rules were the sheriff of the place, and came off with all the posse.

Locke.

Pos*sess" (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Possessed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Possessing.] [L. possessus, p. p. of possidere to have, possess, from an inseparable prep. (cf. Position) + sedere to sit. See Sit.] 1. To occupy in person; to hold or actually have in one's own keeping; to have and to hold.

Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.