Posting

How to spell posting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce posting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does posting mean?

1. nounA message, notice, or entry published on a website, forum, or social media platform.
2. nounAn advertisement announcing an available job or position.
3. nounAn assignment to a particular place or duty, especially in the military or a large organisation.

Posting in a sentence

• Her posting about the lost cat was shared dozens of times.

• She applied for the posting within an hour of seeing it.

• His next posting takes the family overseas for three years.

• The moderator deleted the offensive posting within minutes.

• The job posting listed five years of experience as a requirement.

• The diplomat accepted a posting in the embassy at Madrid.

Where does posting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base word post carries several threads that all feed into posting. One thread runs from the Latin postis, meaning 'a doorpost' or 'upright pillar', which gave the sense of a fixed station or position where someone is placed; this is why a soldier can be sent to a posting. A second thread comes from the Italian posta and Old French poste, describing the relay stations set up along roads where fresh horses waited, which is how post came to mean the carrying of letters and, later, anything sent or published. By adding the ordinary English suffix -ing, the language formed posting both as a verbal noun for the act of sending or publishing and as a concrete noun for the thing posted or the assignment given. In the digital age the message thread revived strongly, so that a posting now most often means an entry placed on a website or forum. The single t before -ing is the small spelling point worth noting, since the short vowel does not double the consonant the way clapped or running might lead a writer to expect.

How the word is built

• post (from Latin postis 'doorpost', later 'station, position, message')
• -ing (noun/gerund suffix)