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post

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English has three main words spelled post: the upright pole, the mail and the position or job.[1][2][3] The prefix post- “after” is a fourth word, from post (“after, behind”).[1][4]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /pəʊst/, US /poʊst/[5]

post1 upright pole

Etymology

The upright pole is inherited from Middle English post, inherited from Old English post (“pillar, doorpost”), borrowed from Latin postis (“doorpost, later beam, rod”),[6][3][7][4] probably a very early borrowing made on the Continent, shared with Old Frisian post and Old High German pfosto;[3][8] in Middle English it was reinforced by Old French post and by Middle Low German post and Middle Dutch post.[7][4][9] Latin postis is perhaps formed from por- (“forth”) and stāre (“to stand”).[6][9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pillar or doorpost: Old English post, about 1000, in Ælfric's Lives of Saints.[3]

Semantic evolution

The post as a type of hardness, lifelessness and deafness (deaf as a post) is from the early 15th century.[6] To post a notice, by fixing it to a post, is dated 1633 by Merriam-Webster,[10] the 1630s by Etymonline[6] and 1650 by Barnhart,[3] and it came to mean “to make known, to bring before the public”.[6] To post a score or a win is American sportswriting of 1949.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English post, pillar.[3]
  • early 15th century – as a type of deafness.[6]
  • 1633 – verb, to put up a notice.[10]
  • 1949 – to post a score.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An upright piece of wood or other material set in the ground as a support or marker.
  2. A goalpost.

Verb

  1. To put up (a notice) in public view; to announce publicly.
  2. To score (points or a win).

Word family

  • poster
  • postless
  • postlike
  • post up

post2 mail

Etymology

The mail is borrowed from Middle French poste (“station for post horses”), from Italian posta (“an establishment for the conveyance of mail”), from Vulgar Latin *posta (“station, fixed place on a road”), from posita, the feminine past participle of pōnere (“to place, put”).[3][6][11][8] It is the same French word as post3, “position”, taken in its sense of a station where horses were kept for relays of riders.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1506, the riders and horses posted at intervals along a route to carry letters in relays, and the places where the post horses were kept.[3][6][8]

Semantic evolution

In 1507 a post was also the rider who carried the letters.[3][12] To travel with relays of horses is from 1533,[3][10] and to ride post “to go fast” from the 1540s.[6] In bookkeeping, to post an entry in a ledger (1620s) is a figurative use, the entry being “carried” as by post horses.[6] The system for carrying letters is recorded in Pepys's diary in 1663,[3] a single delivery before 1674,[3] and the verb “to send by mail” in 1837.[3][6] Barnhart notes that these specific senses came before the general military sense of post3, “place where a soldier is stationed” (1598), all being part of the international vocabulary of the new state postal systems.[3] Postage is from 1590,[3] and several newspapers have been called the Post since the 1680s.[6]

Timeline

  • 1506 – a station for post horses.[3][8]
  • 1507 – a courier.[3][12]
  • 1533 – verb, to travel with relays.[3]
  • 1590 – postage.[3]
  • 1620s – verb, to enter in a ledger.[6]
  • 1663 – the postal system (Pepys).[3]
  • 1837 – verb, to mail.[3][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The system for carrying letters; the mail, or a single delivery of it.
  2. (historical) A relay station for post horses, or a rider who carried letters between them.

Verb

  1. To send by mail.
  2. To enter in a ledger.
  3. (archaic) To travel in haste.

Adverb

  1. (archaic) With speed; by post horse.

Word family

  • postage
  • repost
  • unposted

post3 position, job

Etymology

The position is borrowed from Middle French poste (“place where one is stationed, employment, military post”), from Italian posto (“post, station, employment”), from Vulgar Latin *postum (“station”), from positum, the neuter past participle of pōnere (“to place, put”).[3][6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The place where a soldier is stationed, 1598; the earliest sense in English was military.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

To station someone at a post is from 1683.[3][10] A job or office is a post from the 1690s,[6][3] and a fort or permanent quarters for troops from 1703.[6] The bugle call last post is from the late 19th century.[7]

Timeline

  • 1598 – a soldier's station.[3]
  • 1683 – verb, to station.[3][10]
  • 1690s – a job.[6][3]
  • 1703 – a fort.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The place where a soldier or guard is stationed.
  2. A military base or fort.
  3. A job, especially an appointed office.

Verb

  1. To assign to a station or appointment.
  • position
  • postal
  • postpone
  • post-
  • ex post
  • posture
  • deposit
  • post-haste

Usage notes

To post bail (1781) comes from one of these words, but which one is uncertain.[6] Minor words with the same spelling include post in paper-making, a pile of handmade sheets, apparently from German Posten “batch”,[7][9] and the old card game post and pair.[7][12]

References

  1. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  12. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)