Postage

How to spell postage

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce postage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does postage mean?

1. nounThe charge or fee paid for sending a letter or parcel by post.

Postage in a sentence

• The parcel was heavy, so the postage cost more than expected.

• She added extra postage to make sure the package arrived on time.

Where does postage come from?

Language of origin: French

The word combines 'post', meaning the system that carries letters and parcels, with the noun suffix '-age', which often marks a charge or fee. 'Post' in this sense reached English in the 1500s from the French 'poste' and the Italian 'posta', which described the relay stations where horses and riders were stationed at fixed intervals along a road to carry official messages. That noun ultimately traces back to the Latin 'posita', meaning 'placed' or 'set down', from 'ponere' 'to place', because the stations were positions fixed along a route. The suffix '-age' came in through Old French from the Latin '-aticum', a productive ending used to form nouns of action, charge, or quantity, as in 'baggage' and 'mileage'. 'Postage', meaning the charge for sending something by post, is recorded from the late 1500s and settled into its modern sense of the fee paid to carry mail. The single 't' and the soft 'g' ending make it look simple, though the unstressed second syllable can tempt writers toward 'postidge'.

How the word is built

• post (from posta: the mail or postal system)
• -age (noun suffix forming a charge or collective sense)