POS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

POSAuthored

The Law Mind • 826 words

Definition

"Pos" is an archaic Anglo-Norman abbreviation and particle appearing in early common law pleading and court records, functioning as a prefix or standalone particle derived from the Old French "porter" (to bear or to bring). In historical legal texts, it signals two distinct operative meanings depending on context:

1. To bear or carry (as in bearing record, bearing faith, or bearing date): Used in formulaic expressions attaching legal force or authentication to a document, oath, or court proceeding.

2. To bring (as in bringing an action): Used in pleading language to indicate that an action has been commenced or a party has initiated legal process.

Both senses appear in abbreviated or contracted form in Year Books, registers of original writs, and early plea rolls, where space economy and Law French convention drove heavy use of such particles.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Pos" functions as an informal clipping of "positive," an alternative spelling of "poz" (HIV-positive), or a clipping of "possessive."

Historical common usage: Webster's 1913 does not record "pos" as a standard English entry; it was not a recognized common English word in that period.

Editorial note: The legal particle "pos" has no meaningful relationship to any of its modern informal uses. A researcher encountering "pos" in a historical legal document should not import any modern connotation; the term is purely a functional marker in Law French pleading and record language.

Common Confusion

"Pos" in legal manuscripts is easily misread or mistranscribed by researchers unfamiliar with Law French contractions. It may be confused with "per," "pro," or abbreviated forms of "posse" (power, or the body of persons summoned by a sheriff). Context is decisive: "pos" followed by "record" or "date" signals the "bearer" sense; "pos" followed by an action type signals the "brought" or "commenced" sense. It bears no relation to "posse comitatus" or to "possession," despite superficial resemblance to the first syllable of both.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in early English plea rolls, Year Books, Bracton, Britton, or registers of original writs will encounter "pos" as part of formulaic Law French expressions. The two most significant are:

— "Porter record" / "Porte record": Courts described as bearing record are courts of record, a classification with profound procedural and evidentiary consequences in English legal history. When Burrill cites "en courte que porte record," he is identifying the phrase that distinguishes courts of record from courts not of record — a distinction that determined whether proceedings had inherent conclusive effect, could fine or imprison for contempt, and whether the record itself was immune from collateral attack. Researchers tracing the development of courts of record will encounter this construction repeatedly.

— "Port action" / "En dett port": These phrases appear in Year Book pleading reports and early case abstracts to signal that an action has been brought. Misreading "port" as a noun (a harbor or gate) rather than as the Law French past tense of "porter" (brought) will produce nonsensical readings.

The Burrill entry cross-references "Porter foy" (to bear faith, in the old oath of fealty), which connects to feudal tenure documentation and property research in the Anglo-Norman period.

Researchers should note that Burrill's entry is itself a compressed digest of multiple earlier sources — Britton, Dyer, and the Registrum Originale — and tracks no single statute or case. When verifying a specific usage, those primary sources should be consulted directly rather than relying on Burrill's synthesis alone.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary treats "pos" (under its parent entry, the fuller "porter" particle) as a set of fixed formulaic expressions rather than a free-standing term. Burrill correctly identifies three distinct operative phrases: porter record (bear record), porter foy (bear faith), and porter date (bear date), along with the action-bringing sense in port action. His citations to Britton, Dyer, and the Registrum Originale are standard reference points for Law French usage and are reliable.

What Burrill does not address is the interpretive problem this particle poses for post-Law French legal research: once English displaced Law French in pleading (formally compelled by statute in 1731), these constructions disappeared from living legal usage, and their presence in earlier records became a trap for later readers unfamiliar with the convention. No major nineteenth-century American legal dictionary treats "pos" as a distinct entry, reflecting the practical obsolescence of the form by that period.

Jurisdictional Note

This term is relevant only in the context of English common law before the eighteenth century and in jurisdictions — principally the United States and Canada — where early legal history draws on English Year Books and registers. It has no living jurisdictional variation; modern legal systems do not use Law French pleading forms.

POSmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870

(311) q. v.] To bear. Porter record; to bear record. Britt. fol. 2 b. En courte que porte record; in a court which bears record; in a court of record. Id. c. 47. Porter foy; to bear faith. An expression in the old oath of fealty. Britt. c. 29. Reg. Orig. 303. Porter date; to bear date. 1 And. 3. Portant date. Dyer, 93 b. To bring. Port action; brought action, 1 And. 3. En dett port. Id. 4. Une feme porta briefe de dower; a woman brought a writ of dower. Yearb. T. 1 Edw. III. 1. Porter and portare were usually applied to writs, and arrainer and arrainare to assises. PORTGREVE, Portreeve. (L. Lat. portgrefius, portgrevius; from Sax. portgerefa, from port, and gerefa, a reeve, bailiff or presiding officer.] In old English law. The chief officer of a port. Spelman. The chief officer of a town or city, especially a sea-port town. The chief magistrate of London (now mayor) was called portgreve in the time of William the Conqueror. Spelman. Cowell. See Mayor. (312) population of a county above the age of 42 a, Ratcliff's case. Through this chanfifteen, which a sheriff may summon to his assistance in certain cases; as to aid him in keeping the peace, in pursuing and arresting felons, &c. 1 Bl. Com. 343. The most common instances of the use of this power in England, have been in cases where a possession has been kept upon a forcible entry, or any force or rescue used contrary to the command of the king's writ, or in opposition to the execution of justice. Cowell. Stat. Westm. 2, c. 39. Assumpto secum posse comitatus sui in propria persona fac' executionem præcepti regis; having taken with him the power of his county, shall in proper person make execution of the king's precept. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 68, § 2. This power is impliedly given by the Constitution of the United States. Federalist, No. 29. The term posse ballivia, (power of the bailiwick) occurs in the old books. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 47, § 1. (313) another kind which consisted of a great deal of possession and some right, (plurimum possessionis et aliquid juris,) as where one held land for a term by the grant of a person who demised it to him, but did not die seised; and a fourth kind, consisting of much possession and much right, (multum possessionis et multum juris,) as where one had the mere right in a thing, and the property of the fee, and the freehold with seisin, but of which he did not die seised. Bract. fol. 39. (314) (315) verb, having the full sense of afterwards; in some parts, that an after-born son is the word itself being the correlative of antepreferred to the first-born, and è contra. factum, a fore-act, or previous act. Utrum ne in post-facta-an etiam in ante-facta. A. Gell. Noct. Att. lib. xvii. c. 7. In the derived phrase ex postfacto, however, post has generally been treated by those who have attempted to translate it, not only as a distinct word, but as a preposition governing facto, in violation of one of the simplest rules of grammar. See Ex postfacto.

posadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Clipping of positive. | Alternative spelling of poz (“HIV positive”). | Clipping of possessive.

POSphrase

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Initialism of parent over shoulder (i.e. observing the young user's conversation).

POSnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Initialism of proof of service. | Initialism of peripheral oxygen saturation. | Initialism of part of speech. | Initialism of point of sale or point of service. | Initialism of proprietary operating system. | Initialism of position and orientation system. | Initialism of piece of shit. | Initialism of Parinaud's oculoglandular syndrome.

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