In Notes From Underground, there's a scene where the main character is pissed at some young friends of his who are gadding about town—it's Czarist Russia, they're middle class, it's kind of like Seattle, circa 1999—and they split from some restaurant without telling him they're leaving. So naturally he's pissed—who hasn't been there, eh?
Well, what does he say when he catches up with them?—he says, "You should have sent a note. That's what the post is for, after all!"
The "post!" Did you get that? That's rich, "the post."
I have begun to love this word, "post." So simple. Almost a figure of the simplest, sweetest word. Four letters. One vowel. Lovely. It means so many different things—have you noticed?
For example, it means, obviously, a pole that comes out of the ground, as on a fence. It also means to put something up for public display, of course, and according to Merriam-Webster, "to denounce publicly". Also a position, or job that one holds.
In a more British English (anyone confirm that?) it's a verb for sending something through "the mails"—said mails also being called "the post," as in our Dostoevsky quote.
Would anyone like to take a gander at whether, or how, the meanings are related? I've always suspected that in some time of yore, one somehow posted messages by post, causing someone to post out into the wilderness where there would be an agent of the post (posted there, at his post), waiting patiently by a post (or beam if you will). All of this post post haste, of course. A cursory etymological study indicates that Middle French poste indicated a relay station, as well as a courier, suggesting that our "post" (as, the mail system) is related to the distributed-outpost infrastructure. Is it possible these relay stations were once marked by something as simple as a post? I like to picture the post sitting there (minding its own business) with a bunch of messages posted to it, waiting for the next courier or poste to happen by.
How about that Shakespearean "ex post haste," then, or "post post haste"? Are those two "post"s just doubling the speed, following the Japanese method of repeating words to amplify them? Or are they different "post"s, one indicating "after" and the other indicating a relay station? I'm dying to know. Two candy bars and fifteen minutes of fame for anyone who can answer this satisfyingly.
Miscellaneous side note: the ETS can bite my crank.