Etymology
1. "mail system," 1506, from
post (2) on notion of riders and horses posted at intervals along a route to speed mail in relays, from M.Fr.
poste in this sense (1477). The verb meaning "to send through the postal system" is recorded from 1837.
Postmark (n.) is first recorded 1678;
postman first recorded 1529;
postcard is from 1870.
Post office first recorded 1652 as "public department in charge of letter-carrying;" Meaning "Building where postal business is carried on" is from 1657. In slang or euphemistic sense of "sexual game" it refers to a parlor game first attested early 1850s in which pretend "letters" were paid for by kisses.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *per-der.?
4. Proto-Indo-European *per-der.?
5. Proto-Indo-European *pér
6. Proto-Indo-European *-o
7. Proto-Indo-European *pró
8. Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-
9. Proto-Indo-European *-is
10. Proto-Indo-European *pr̥-sth₂-i-s
11. Proto-Italic *porstis
12. Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep
13. Proto-Indo-European *-o
14. Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó
15. Proto-Indo-European *h₂pó
16. Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-
17. Proto-Indo-European *-is
18. Proto-Indo-European *h₂pó-sth₂-i-s
19. Proto-Italic *postis
20. Latin postisbor.
21. Old English post
22. ▲
23. Latin postisder.
24. Old French postbor.
25. Middle English post
26. English post
27. Inherited from Middle English post, from Old English post (“pillar, door-post”) and Old French post (“post, upright beam”), both from Latin postis (“door, post, doorpost”).
Verbs referencing "post"
Scots Gaelic
post, German, old spelling
posten, Alemannic German
poschte.