postage stampn.adj.

Brit.

/ˈpəʊstɪdʒ ˌstamp/, U.S.

/ˈpoʊstɪdʒ ˌstæmp/

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: postage n.¹, stamp n.³

Etymology: < postage n.¹ + stamp n.³The name stamp was originally applied to the marks stamped or impressed by the Post Office on letters for various purposes, among others that of stating whether they were prepaid, unpaid, free, partly paid, or paid by the twopenny or other post (compare stamp n.³ 14). When adhesive labels and impressed envelopes were introduced in 1840, these took the place of the ‘paid’ or ‘prepaid’ stamp, and appear to have been popularly called postage stamps from the first. The official and more accurate name was postage label; but the popular usage prevailed; by 1850 postage label stamp was in official use, and finally postage stamp was accepted. The actual stamps which continued to be impressed by the Post Office after 1840, to show the place and date of postage and arrival, and to obliterate or deface the postage stamp, are now usually distinguished respectively as postmarks and as obliteration stamps or obliteration marks (compare German Briefstempel postmark, obliteration mark) .

A. n.

1. An official stamp, occasionally either embossed on an envelope or impressed on a card or wrapper, but usually in the form of a small adhesive label having a specified face value and a design and colour specific to its value and to its country of issue, which must be fixed to any letter or parcel sent by post as prepayment of the postage due, and as evidence of such payment.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > correspondence > postal services > payment for postage > [noun] > postage stamp

postage stamp1829

stamp1837

label1839

head1840

queen's head1840

postage label1852

adhesive1854

sticker1863

1829 W. M. Thackeray Let. 19 Apr. (1945) I. 62 W^d it not be better for me to have some of my money down here at Martlocks?..it would save me a good deal in postage stamps.

1845 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) Oct. 547/1 Let postage stamps, like those used in Great Britain, or like those so recently used in this country by all the private expresses, be prepared under the authority of Congress, and sold at every post-office.

1897 O. Firth Postage Stamps 3 Everyone is..aware of the purpose of a postage stamp, viz. to prepay postage, and to serve as an indication that the proper amount has been paid.

a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 652 Not many people know quezals, the characteristic birds of Guatemala. They used to be sacred and they figure on the postage stamps of that Central American country.

1968 E. R. Buckler Ox Bells & Fireflies 208 Green signing itself on every twig like kings on postage stamps.

2004 Orlando (Florida) Sentinel (Nexis) 13 Sept. e1 Seven to 10 days later, you receive a sheet of 20 self-adhesive, 37-cent postage stamps via snail mail.

2. figurative and in extended use. Something resembling a postage stamp, esp. in being very small.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [noun] > that which is small > a small thing > typical examples of

little fingerc1300

pear1340

hair1377

flea1388

a pin's head (also point)c1450

fitch1550

mouse1584

minnow1596

the pestle of a lark1598

nutshella1616

pinhead1662

pinpoint1670

rope yarn1751

bee's knee1797

peanut1864

postage stamp1881

1881 A. Trumble Slang Dict. N.Y., London & Paris 50 A handkerchief..may be called a ‘table-cloth’ to-morrow, just as we sometimes term a very small napkin a ‘postage-stamp’.

1908 C. E. Mulford Orphan xiii. 164 ‘Dod-blasted postage stamp of a pelt,’ he grumbled.

1978 J. Gores Gone, no Forwarding vii. 42 Kearny began pacing the postage stamp of space behind his desk.

2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Jan. 68/3 The city's first ‘studio’ apartments were built there nearly a century ago, but they were not the postage stamps we live in today.

B. adj. (attributive).

Very small.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [adjective] > of small or scanty extent

narroweOE

straitc1290

scarce1297

scanta1533

pinched?1567

strict1598

thrifty1601

straitened1602

scanty1701

scrimped?c1716

pookit1818

poky1828

postage-stamp-sized1852

poking1864

boxy1870

pocket handkerchief1910

postage stamp1937

1935 A. G. Morice Red River Insurrection xvi. 332 (note) A province named Manitoba [was] erected... This was to form what was long known as the postage stamp province.]

1937 T. Tinsley in Los Angeles Times 5 Dec. 10/1 Pop Daley was proud of his postage-stamp lawn.

1962 Housewife (Ceylon) Feb. 33 I am certainly a veteran at providing the family with reasonably good food on a postage stamp budget.

1968 J. Wainwright Web of Silence 137 A postage-stamp dance floor.

1971 R. Busby Deadlock iii. 32 Chrysanthemums were blooming in the postage stamp garden.

1998 Boxing Monthly June 32/1 In the basement of Joe Byrd's house in Flint, Michigan, sits a 10-foot ring. Boxing as a youngster on a postage-stamp canvas like that is tantamount to learning to swim in a bathtub.

Compounds

C1. In sense A. 1 (esp. with reference to philately), as postage stamp album, postage stamp collecting, postage stamp size, postage stamp system, etc.; postage-stamp-sized adj.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [adjective] > of small or scanty extent

narroweOE

straitc1290

scarce1297

scanta1533

pinched?1567

strict1598

thrifty1601

straitened1602

scanty1701

scrimped?c1716

pookit1818

poky1828

postage-stamp-sized1852

poking1864

boxy1870

pocket handkerchief1910

postage stamp1937

1852 Rep. Sel. Comm. Postage Label Stamps 2 The efficient working of the postage-stamp system.

1870 Nature 28 July 249/1 We would supply for the mind a rational substitute for such manias as that of postage-stamp collecting.

1886 R. Senf (title) The illustrated postage stamp album.

1909 Manch. Junior Philatelic Soc. (title) Manchester Postage Stamp Exhibition and Philatelic Congress.

1949 R. C. Alcock & C. W. Meredith (title) British postage stamp varieties illustrated.

1956 (title) Postage stamp catalogue of the Republic of China, 1878–1957.

1968 ‘R. Raine’ Night of Hawk viii. 38 A postage-stamp-sized moustache.

1991 Buying Cameras Mar. 7 The machine can also sepia tone a print, reduce it to postage stamp size, [etc.].

1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 248/2 Gibbons, (Edward) Stanley (1840–1913), postage-stamp dealer, was born..in Plymouth.

C2.

postage-stamp currency n. U.S. (now historical) = postage currency n. at postage n.¹ Compounds.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > paper money > foreign banknotes > [noun] > U.S.

long green1837

wild cat1861

greenback1862

postage currency1862

postage-stamp currency1862

postal currency1862

blueback1863

fractional note1863

greyback1863

yellowback1863

goldback1865

Sherman1892

1862 Chicago Tribune 16 July 2/5 There is a general concurrence of views throughout the whole country in regard to postage stamp currency... Why not inaugurate it at once?

1862 Boston Evening Transcript 1 Aug. 2/3 The Postmaster-General and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue have approved of the specimens of the postage stamp currency, which will be for five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents.

1863 Times 11 May 7/1 The postage-stamp currency was issued under a contract expressly printed on the stamps themselves.

1994 Washington Times (Nexis) 4 June b3 It was about this time [1862] that Mrs. Spinner went shopping and used her stamps for change... Thus was created the first experimental ‘postage stamp’ currency.

Derivatives

ˈpostage-stamped adj.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > correspondence > postal services > payment for postage > [adjective] > stamped

stamped1837

postage-stamped1843

1843 R. S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall xi, in New Sporting Mag. Sept. 162 Mrs. Jorrocks's postage stamped boudoir.

1875 J. A. Morgan Law of Lit. I. i. 488 Letters in the United States cannot be carried out of the mail except in postage-stamped envelopes.

1982 Fortune (Nexis) 22 Feb. 73 On his windowsill sits a postage-stamped coconut, mailed unwrapped to him by actress Candice Bergen.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	postage stamp
释义	postage stampn.adj. Brit. /ˈpəʊstɪdʒ ˌstamp/, U.S. /ˈpoʊstɪdʒ ˌstæmp/ Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: postage n.¹, stamp n.³ Etymology: < postage n.¹ + stamp n.³The name stamp was originally applied to the marks stamped or impressed by the Post Office on letters for various purposes, among others that of stating whether they were prepaid, unpaid, free, partly paid, or paid by the twopenny or other post (compare stamp n.³ 14). When adhesive labels and impressed envelopes were introduced in 1840, these took the place of the ‘paid’ or ‘prepaid’ stamp, and appear to have been popularly called postage stamps from the first. The official and more accurate name was postage label; but the popular usage prevailed; by 1850 postage label stamp was in official use, and finally postage stamp was accepted. The actual stamps which continued to be impressed by the Post Office after 1840, to show the place and date of postage and arrival, and to obliterate or deface the postage stamp, are now usually distinguished respectively as postmarks and as obliteration stamps or obliteration marks (compare German Briefstempel postmark, obliteration mark) . A. n. 1. An official stamp, occasionally either embossed on an envelope or impressed on a card or wrapper, but usually in the form of a small adhesive label having a specified face value and a design and colour specific to its value and to its country of issue, which must be fixed to any letter or parcel sent by post as prepayment of the postage due, and as evidence of such payment. ΘΚΠ society > communication > correspondence > postal services > payment for postage > [noun] > postage stamp postage stamp1829 stamp1837 label1839 head1840 queen's head1840 postage label1852 adhesive1854 sticker1863 1829 W. M. Thackeray Let. 19 Apr. (1945) I. 62 W^d it not be better for me to have some of my money down here at Martlocks?..it would save me a good deal in postage stamps. 1845 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) Oct. 547/1 Let postage stamps, like those used in Great Britain, or like those so recently used in this country by all the private expresses, be prepared under the authority of Congress, and sold at every post-office. 1897 O. Firth Postage Stamps 3 Everyone is..aware of the purpose of a postage stamp, viz. to prepay postage, and to serve as an indication that the proper amount has been paid. a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 652 Not many people know quezals, the characteristic birds of Guatemala. They used to be sacred and they figure on the postage stamps of that Central American country. 1968 E. R. Buckler Ox Bells & Fireflies 208 Green signing itself on every twig like kings on postage stamps. 2004 Orlando (Florida) Sentinel (Nexis) 13 Sept. e1 Seven to 10 days later, you receive a sheet of 20 self-adhesive, 37-cent postage stamps via snail mail. 2. figurative and in extended use. Something resembling a postage stamp, esp. in being very small. ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [noun] > that which is small > a small thing > typical examples of little fingerc1300 pear1340 hair1377 flea1388 a pin's head (also point)c1450 fitch1550 mouse1584 minnow1596 the pestle of a lark1598 nutshella1616 pinhead1662 pinpoint1670 rope yarn1751 bee's knee1797 peanut1864 postage stamp1881 1881 A. Trumble Slang Dict. N.Y., London & Paris 50 A handkerchief..may be called a ‘table-cloth’ to-morrow, just as we sometimes term a very small napkin a ‘postage-stamp’. 1908 C. E. Mulford Orphan xiii. 164 ‘Dod-blasted postage stamp of a pelt,’ he grumbled. 1978 J. Gores Gone, no Forwarding vii. 42 Kearny began pacing the postage stamp of space behind his desk. 2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Jan. 68/3 The city's first ‘studio’ apartments were built there nearly a century ago, but they were not the postage stamps we live in today. B. adj. (attributive). Very small. ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [adjective] > of small or scanty extent narroweOE straitc1290 scarce1297 scanta1533 pinched?1567 strict1598 thrifty1601 straitened1602 scanty1701 scrimped?c1716 pookit1818 poky1828 postage-stamp-sized1852 poking1864 boxy1870 pocket handkerchief1910 postage stamp1937 1935 A. G. Morice Red River Insurrection xvi. 332 (note) A province named Manitoba [was] erected... This was to form what was long known as the postage stamp province.] 1937 T. Tinsley in Los Angeles Times 5 Dec. 10/1 Pop Daley was proud of his postage-stamp lawn. 1962 Housewife (Ceylon) Feb. 33 I am certainly a veteran at providing the family with reasonably good food on a postage stamp budget. 1968 J. Wainwright Web of Silence 137 A postage-stamp dance floor. 1971 R. Busby Deadlock iii. 32 Chrysanthemums were blooming in the postage stamp garden. 1998 Boxing Monthly June 32/1 In the basement of Joe Byrd's house in Flint, Michigan, sits a 10-foot ring. Boxing as a youngster on a postage-stamp canvas like that is tantamount to learning to swim in a bathtub. Compounds C1. In sense A. 1 (esp. with reference to philately), as postage stamp album, postage stamp collecting, postage stamp size, postage stamp system, etc.; postage-stamp-sized adj. ΘΚΠ the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [adjective] > of small or scanty extent narroweOE straitc1290 scarce1297 scanta1533 pinched?1567 strict1598 thrifty1601 straitened1602 scanty1701 scrimped?c1716 pookit1818 poky1828 postage-stamp-sized1852 poking1864 boxy1870 pocket handkerchief1910 postage stamp1937 1852 Rep. Sel. Comm. Postage Label Stamps 2 The efficient working of the postage-stamp system. 1870 Nature 28 July 249/1 We would supply for the mind a rational substitute for such manias as that of postage-stamp collecting. 1886 R. Senf (title) The illustrated postage stamp album. 1909 Manch. Junior Philatelic Soc. (title) Manchester Postage Stamp Exhibition and Philatelic Congress. 1949 R. C. Alcock & C. W. Meredith (title) British postage stamp varieties illustrated. 1956 (title) Postage stamp catalogue of the Republic of China, 1878–1957. 1968 ‘R. Raine’ Night of Hawk viii. 38 A postage-stamp-sized moustache. 1991 Buying Cameras Mar. 7 The machine can also sepia tone a print, reduce it to postage stamp size, [etc.]. 1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 248/2 Gibbons, (Edward) Stanley (1840–1913), postage-stamp dealer, was born..in Plymouth. C2. postage-stamp currency n. U.S. (now historical) = postage currency n. at postage n.¹ Compounds. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > paper money > foreign banknotes > [noun] > U.S. long green1837 wild cat1861 greenback1862 postage currency1862 postage-stamp currency1862 postal currency1862 blueback1863 fractional note1863 greyback1863 yellowback1863 goldback1865 Sherman1892 1862 Chicago Tribune 16 July 2/5 There is a general concurrence of views throughout the whole country in regard to postage stamp currency... Why not inaugurate it at once? 1862 Boston Evening Transcript 1 Aug. 2/3 The Postmaster-General and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue have approved of the specimens of the postage stamp currency, which will be for five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents. 1863 Times 11 May 7/1 The postage-stamp currency was issued under a contract expressly printed on the stamps themselves. 1994 Washington Times (Nexis) 4 June b3 It was about this time [1862] that Mrs. Spinner went shopping and used her stamps for change... Thus was created the first experimental ‘postage stamp’ currency. Derivatives ˈpostage-stamped adj. ΘΚΠ society > communication > correspondence > postal services > payment for postage > [adjective] > stamped stamped1837 postage-stamped1843 1843 R. S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall xi, in New Sporting Mag. Sept. 162 Mrs. Jorrocks's postage stamped boudoir. 1875 J. A. Morgan Law of Lit. I. i. 488 Letters in the United States cannot be carried out of the mail except in postage-stamped envelopes. 1982 Fortune (Nexis) 22 Feb. 73 On his windowsill sits a postage-stamped coconut, mailed unwrapped to him by actress Candice Bergen. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < n.adj.1829
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