All Things Postal

In a particularly exciting moment at work a few weeks ago I started thinking about the post. Not about the Royal Mail - as fine a service as it is, despite all the times we moan about it*- but about the origin of the word ‘post’. It’s an odd word when you think about it; what, on God’s good earth does it have to do with sending last minute birthday invitations to your chums? Well, whether you’re interested in an explanation or not, here goes:

‘Post’ most likely refers to the practice of tying a box to a post to put messages in. A post-master, usually an innkeeper, would then be responsible for retrieving all the messages from the box and sending them on to the next post, probably via stagecoach, or some young sprightly rider. In the 16th century an enterprising landlord in Billericay, Essex, even took it upon himself to train a flock of pigeons to carry the mail all the way to Brentwood in specially designed harnesses. Unfortunately the flock and post met an untimely end one day at the hands of a particularly ravenous flight of buzzards and the poor landlord was made to dress as a chicken and walk around the town squawking his profoundest apologies as penance**.

That’s all very well, you may say, but what about other post related words?

Well, if you insist:

Mail - The word ‘mail’ is said to derive from the Old French word male, which means a wallet or bag. Bags are probably one of the best things to carry letters in I’d say, so that seems to make sense.

Stamps - Stamps are called stamps because before there were stamps people used to frank their letters with hand stamps to confirm postage.

Frank - Frank is an interesting one. It appears to refer to entitled people, way back when, being able to send their correspondences for free. The Franks , it seems, lorded it over everyone in old Frankish Gaul, getting the best seats on the bus and even free coffees in medieval Starbucks.

Envelope – A pretty simple one this. It’s a cover isn’t it? A nice little cover for your letter. Derived from the French word envelopper, to... err... well, to envelop or cover. (It’s a good job we didn’t get the word from the German though, that’s all I can say. ‘Pass me an umschlag, dear’, sounds a bit crass.)

Letter – Well, they’re made up of letters, so I guess that’s why they’re called that. I suppose by the same assumption they could be called words or sentences too but they’re not, which is fine by me I guess. It’s always best to stick with your first thought I think, unless it’s something bad or unhelpful of course, then it’s fair game to go on to the second, but in this case I’m happy to stick with the first... so, letter it is.

Postman Pat – According to Wikipedia Postman Pat is a British stop-motion animated children's television series first produced by Woodland Animations. And apparently Pat’s last name is Clifton.

Well, that’s about it for another week. I won’t take up any more of your time.

Have a fabulous one and I’ll catch you all again soon.

*The art of moaning is a British institution. For ‘Royal Mail’ please also substitute ‘the National Health Service’ or ‘the weather’.

** I may have made this up.