Post

Mike from Cadillac asked how a phrase such as post-911 is related to a fence post, an army post, and so on. The post- in hyphenated words or in words such as postmortem or postscript comes from a Latin preposition that means after or later in time. That’s the easy part. There are 12 nouns spelled p-o-s-t and 6 verbs, many with their own subdivisions. We might as well run through the noun meanings one by one.

post¹  [L. postis, stake or pole]

• a support or column of timber
• a boundary marker or support for a fence
• a stake representing stupidity or unresponsiveness
• a record of an account or score
• a vertical mass of stratified rock between two joints or fissures
• fine-grained sandstone or limestone
• Basketball: an offensive position near the free-throw lane occupied by the player (or players) coordinating the team's attacks; the area of the court broadly corresponding to this position, extending from the baseline to the free-throw line

post²  [special use of L. post-]

• a writ of entry

post³  [L. posta, a stopping station]

• any of a series of men who rode from stage to stage with letters or dispatches
• a postman or postwoman
• a vehicle or vessel used to carry letters
• any of a series of stations
• the official postal service
• a single collection or delivery of mail
• postage charge
• a message displayed on an online forum

post⁴  [It. posta, a stake in a game]

• a card game

post⁵  [It. posto, specific place assigned to a person]

• a position of paid appointment
• the place where a soldier is assigned when on duty; the beat patrolled by a sentry
• a place of duty
• a place where a body of soldiers is stationed
• a fort or garrison
• commission as a naval officer

post⁶  [Urdu post, poppy head]

• an intoxicating beverage made by steeping poppy heads in warm water

post⁷  [It. posta, account entry]

• an act of posting or an entry in a ledger

post⁸  [Ger. post, specified quantity of goods]

• a pile of handmade paper with sheets of felt interspersed, ready for pressing
• a batch of ore for smelting

post⁹  [short for post entry]

post¹⁰  [special use of post⁵]

• a bugle call signaling bedtime

post¹¹  [a shortened version of postgraduate]

post¹²  [a shortened version of postmortem, an autopsy]

Once again, the lesson is clear: just because words with different meanings share an identical letter sequence, their spelling does not necessarily mean that they come from the same source.

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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