post-hornn.
/ˈpəʊsthɔːn/, U.S. /ˈpoʊs(t)ˌ(h)ɔrn/ 1.
a. A brass horn of varying size (in England usually straight, on the continent frequently coiled) formerly used by a postman or messenger, or the guard of a mail coach, to announce arrival. Now historical.Later also extended to a horn used on other horse-drawn vehicles.In quot. a1652: the sound of the post-horn.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > postal services > [noun] > post-horn
post-horna1652
yard of tin1903
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > sound of horn > [noun] > horn or hooter
post-horna1652
steam-trumpet1801
blast-horn1844
fish-horn1856
hooter1878
klaxon1910
beep-beep1929
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > wind instrument > horn > [noun] > post
post-horna1652
mail horn1850
yard of tin1903
a1652 R. Brome Queen & Concubine iv. ix. 106 (stage direct.) in Five New Playes (1659) Post-Horn. Enter Pedro. Letters.
1663 W. Clark Marciano v. iii. 62 A post-horn sounds within... Enter Strenuo with a letter.
1677 London Gaz. No. 1229/4 Thomas Moris a young man..with a gray Coat, and a leather pair of Breeches, and a Post-horn in his Girdle,..Rid away with a Chesnut Coloured Gelding.
1723 tr. F. C. Weber Present State Russia I. 115 Post-boys..have no Post-Horns, but only the Mark of the Spread-Eagle.
1782 W. Cowper Table Talk in Poems 33 The wretch..Who, for the sake of filling with one blast The post-horns of all Europe, lays her waste.
1840 T. Hood Up Rhine 261 In the mean time, the post-horn kept blowing.
1882 F. M. Crawford Mr. Isaacs ix Every tonga-driver is provided with a post horn.
1904 M. E. Waller Wood-carver 299 The scream of the locomotive..sounded forever the doom of the Hornet's post-horn.
1941 Monumenta Nipponica 4 93 The postillion used to blow the post-horn upon his arrival and then display his letters to the villagers gathering round his coach.
1987 E. Sainsbury George MacDonald 8 The square would be enlivened by the arrival of the mail coach, the crack of the post-horn warning of its approach.
b. Music. A valveless instrument similar to or derived from a post-horn (sense 1a) and used in orchestral or band music.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > wind instrument > horn > [noun] > other horns
earth horn?a1400
oliphantc1400
ruetc1400
buck-hornc1550
stock-horn1597
bell-horna1640
sea-cornet1653
dudeen?1790
carnyx1810
shofar1833
wonder-horn1864
handhorn1871
post-horn1881
1881 W. H. Stone in G. Grove Dict. Music III. 21 Posthorn, a small straight brass or copper instrument, varying in length from two to four feet, of a bore usually resembling the conical bugle more than the trumpet, played by means of a small and shallow-cupped mouthpiece.
1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 743/2 The larger varieties of the posthorn came to be known as the coachhorn.
1989 W. Thompson Mozart 52 A brilliant D major piece..incorporating a posthorn into one of the minuets.
1992 Oxf. Compan. Musical Instruments 270/1 Post horns are still made in Britain for performing solos in band concerts.
2. In full post-horn pond snail. A ramshorn snail of Europe and the Middle East, Planorbarius corneus. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Gastropoda > [noun] > order Pulmonifera > Inoperculata > family Limnaeidae or Planorbidae > genus Planorbis > member of
post-horn pond snail1776
flat-coil1901
1776 E. M. da Costa Elements Conchol. 202 Posthorns and Lamps.
1876 H. A. Nicholson Man. Zool. (ed. 2) li. 330 The shell of the Spirula—commonly known as the ‘post-horn’—is similar in structure to the shell of the Nautilus.
1901 Westm. Gaz. 16 Dec. 3/1 A good purple dye may also be got from the posthorn pond snail.
Compounds
C1. General attributive (in sense 1b), as post-horn band, post-horn solo, etc.
ΚΠ
1864 Daily Tel. 16 July 5/5 A post-horn band..performing in some unlicensed place.
1935 Times 2 Mar. 13/6 The cornet solo..was followed by a posthorn solo by the same instrumentalist.
1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 743/2 The once famous Posthorn Galop of Koenig was played on a straight instrument.
1986 A. Greeley God Game (1987) xv. 307 I hear the pipe outside my window... It sounds like the Menuetto in Mozart's Posthorn Serenade.
1991 R. Brookhiser Way of WASP (1992) vii. 94 Compare some bit of Ives with the famous posthorn solo in the third movement of Mahler's Third Symphony.
C2.
post-horn pond snail n. see sense 2.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1652