postal
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Pronunciation
- IPA: UK /ˈpəʊ.stəl/, US /ˈpoʊ.stəl/[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from French postal, from poste (“postal service”),[2][3] or formed in English from post, the mail, on the model of the French adjective.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Relating to the post or the carriage of mail: 1842 in Merriam-Webster, 1843 in Etymonline and the OED.[2][4][5]
Semantic evolution
In American English a postal was also a postal car or mail train (1871).[5] The postal ballot, voting by post, is from 1945.[5] Going postal, flying into a violent rage, is attested by 1997, after a series of workplace shootings in the United States by what news reports called a “disgruntled postal worker”, a cliché from at least 1994.[4]
Timeline
- 1842 – relating to the mail.[2]
- 1871 – a postal car (US).[5]
- 1945 – postal ballot.[5]
- by 1997 – going postal.[4]
Modern meaning
Adjective
- Of or relating to the post office or the mail service.
Noun
- go postal (US slang): to become uncontrollably or violently angry.
Word family
- postally
- semipostal
- postal service
- postal order
- postal code
Related words
- post
- post office
- postage
- postman
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press