Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who rides the near horse of the leaders to guide the horses drawing a coach.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A post-boy; one who rides a post-horse; a guide or forerunner.
- n. One who rides the near horse of the leaders when four or more horses are used in a carriage or post-chaise, or who rides the near horse when one pair only is used and there is no driver on the box.
- n. Same as postilion-basque.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who rides and guides the first pair of horses of a coach or post chaise; also, one who rides one of the horses when one pair only is used.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone who rides the near horse of a pair in order to guide the horses pulling a carriage (especially a carriage without a coachman)
Etymologies
- From Middle French postillon, and its likely source, Italian postiglione ("guide for driver of post-coach"), from posta ("post"). (Wiktionary)
- French postillon, from Italian postiglione, from posta, mail, from Old Italian, mail station; see post3. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The postilion was a venerable 'boy' of sixty -- a martyr to rheumatic gout, the result of excessive exposure in youth, counteracted by strong liquors -- who had stood at inn-doors doing nothing for the whole five-and-twenty years that had elapsed since he had no longer been required to ride professionally, as if expecting the old times to come back again.”
“The postilion was a venerable "boy" of sixty -- a martyr to rheumatic gout, the result of excessive exposure in youth, counter-acted by strong liquors -- who had stood at inn-doors doing nothing for the whole five-and-twenty years that had elapsed since he had no longer been required to ride professionally, as if expecting the old times to come back again.”
“With an impatient murmur, the stranger called the postilion and sent him to the”
“Our postilion was a silly fellow, who could not understand whether his money was correct.”
Northern Travel Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland
“As it grew lighter, we were surprised to find that our postilion was a girl.”
Northern Travel Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland
“Our postilion was a thorough master of his calling, and his spurs and whip seemed to know no cessation from action.”
A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume One
“What is certain is, that on the following morning, a "postilion" was flung from the Charlemagne yard into the Lions 'Ditch, over the five-story building which separated the two court-yards.”
“What prisoners call a "postilion" is a pallet of bread artistically moulded, which is sent into Ireland, that is to say, over the roofs of a prison, from one courtyard to another.”
“When, too, Mr. Gell calls the postilion “Menzilgi,” he mistakes him for his betters: Serrugees are postilions; Mensilgis are postmasters. ””
“- to ask if I would mind letting her take the pattern of my charming "postilion," which should be returned in half an hour.”
Harrison, Mrs. Burton, 1843-1920. Recollections Grave and Gay
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘postilion’.
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Mirrored Vowels
Rules:
• The word must have an even number of vowels.
• There must be four or more vowels; thus, at minimum, an A-A-A-A or A-B-B-A pattern.
• The vowels must appear in a mir...feminine, solicitor, caruncular, repackager, semiprimes, fetishises, decomposer, demonlover, recomposer, sepultures, lipotropic, colesterol and 385 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 160 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Lions and tigers and—Well, just lions...
million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion, undecillion, duodecillion and 66 more...
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Susan Sontag's The Volcano Lover
aureoled, effluvia, obsequious, postilion, expiatory, destitution, automata, Plutonian, mephitic
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Marginilia
intertextuality, queer, serendipity, eerie, semiotics, schadenfreude, calliope, logophile, marginalia, reductio ad absurdum, dabble, minutia and 141 more...
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Marie Antoinette
New words encountered while reading Marie Antoinette, The Journey by Antonia Fraser
dropsy, belvedere, lorgnettes, aquiline, capricious, cognomen, myopic, sibylline, erudition, prandial, roué, embonpoint and 17 more...
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Pride and Prejudice
Words taken from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
mien, pliancy, ductility, majoralty, denominate, vingt-un, twelvemonth, ragout, blowsy, loo, piquet, precipitance and 50 more...
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Cherry picked
Words on which users with more than 500 comments left their very first comments (notwithstanding that 12 of these users left their first comments on profiles or lists).
If you pass 500...ithyphallic statues, life caching, quine, surcease, set, gehunteschpundt, claptrap, random, septmontium, scraffle, englishable, hypnopompic and 29 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for postilion.
sionnach also spelled as 'postillion'. Best known for its apocryphal inclusion in 19th century foreign language primers, as part of the immortal phrase: "Stop the coach, the postillion has been struck by lightning!" I know of several people who, like myself, heard this phrase growing up, but have never been able to track it down in print. Jan 29, 2007