Other forms: posts
Post is letters and parcels sent through the system that delivers them. Send it by post, the post arrived, post box.
It is the British word where American English says mail, and the verb differs too — Britons post a letter and Americans mail it. The name comes from the relay stations where riders changed horses, each a post. A post is also an upright timber and a job, both separate words. Note posting online.
1nounpostLetters and parcels sent through the delivery system.
“Has the post arrived yet? I'm expecting a parcel.”
2nounuprightAn upright timber or metal support.
“He tied the horse to a wooden post outside the shop.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
post is a delivery system, or an upright.
Also accepted in games: mail
Latin postis means a doorpost. The mail sense comes separately from stations posted along a road where riders changed horses.
Old English
post
Middle English
post
English, today
post
From Middle English post, from Old English post. Middle English post, from Old English post (“pillar, door-post”) and Old French post (“post, upright beam”), both from Latin postis (“door, post, doorpost”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA