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Post vs Before - What's the difference?

post | before |

As a noun post

is post, mail.

As a preposition before is

earlier than (in time).

As an adverb before is

at an earlier time.

As a conjunction before is

in advance of the time when.

post

English

(wikipedia post)

Alternative forms

* poast (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A long dowel or plank protruding from the ground; a fence post; a light post
  • (construction) a stud; a two-by-four
  • A pole in a battery
  • (dentistry) A long, narrow piece inserted into a root canal to provide retention for a crown.
  • a prolonged final melody note, among moving harmony notes
  • (paper, printing) A printing paper size measuring 19.25 inches x 15.5 inches
  • (sports) goalpost
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2010 , date=December 29 , author=Chris Whyatt , title=Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=But they marginally improved after the break as Didier Drogba hit the post . }}
  • (obsolete) The doorpost of a victualler's shop or inn, on which were chalked the scores of customers; hence, a score; a debt.
  • * S. Rowlands
    • When God sends coin / I will discharge your post .
    Derived terms
    * doorpost * fencepost * from pillar to post * gatepost * goalpost * hitching post * king post * lamppost * listening post * milepost * newel post * post hole * * scratching post * signpost * tool post

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hang (a notice) in a conspicuous manner for general review.
    • Post no bills.
  • To hold up to public blame or reproach; to advertise opprobriously; to denounce by public proclamation.
    • to post someone for cowardice
  • * Granville
    • On pain of being posted to your sorrow / Fail not, at four, to meet me.
  • (accounting) To carry (an account) from the journal to the ledger.
  • * Arbuthnot
    • You have not posted your books these ten years.
  • To inform; to give the news to; to make acquainted with the details of a subject; often with up .
  • * London Saturday Review
    • thoroughly posted up in the politics and literature of the day
  • (poker) To pay (a blind)
    • Since Jim was new to the game, he had to post $4 in order to receive a hand.
    Derived terms
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Each of a series of men stationed at specific places along a postroad, with responsibility for relaying letters and dispatches of the monarch (and later others) along the route.
  • (dated) A station, or one of a series of stations, established for the refreshment and accommodation of travellers on some recognized route.
    • a stage or railway post
  • A military base; the place at which a soldier or a body of troops is stationed; also, the troops at such a station.
  • * Archbishop Abbot
    • In certain places there be always fresh posts , to carry that further which is brought unto them by the other.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I fear my Julia would not deign my lines, / Receiving them from such a worthless post .
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 199:
    • information was filtered through the counting-houses and warehouses of Antwerp; posts galloped along the roads of the Low Countries, while dispatches streamed through Calais, and were passed off the merchant galleys arriving in London from the Flanders ports.
  • An organisation for delivering letters, parcels etc., or the service provided by such an organisation.
    • sent via ''post'''; ''parcel '''post
  • * Alexander Pope
    • I send you the fair copy of the poem on dullness, which I should not care to hazard by the common post .
  • A single delivery of letters; the letters or deliveries that make up a single batch delivered to one person or one address.
  • A message posted in an electronic forum.
  • A location on a basketball court near the basket.
  • (American football) A moderate to deep passing route in which a receiver runs 10-20 yards from the line of scrimmage straight down the field, then cuts toward the middle of the field (towards the facing goalposts) at a 45-degree angle.
    • Two of the receivers ran post patterns.
  • (obsolete) Haste or speed, like that of a messenger or mail carrier.
  • * Shakespeare
    • In post he came.
  • (obsolete) One who has charge of a station, especially a postal station.
  • * Palfrey
    • He held office of postmaster, or, as it was then called, post , for several years.
    Derived terms
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To send an item of mail.
    • Mail items posted before 7.00pm within the Central Business District and before 5.00pm outside the Central Business District will be delivered the next working day.
  • To travel with post horses; figuratively, to travel in haste.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Post speedily to my lord your husband.
  • * Milton
    • And post o'er land and ocean without rest.
  • (UK, horse-riding) To rise and sink in the saddle, in accordance with the motion of the horse, especially in trotting.
  • (Internet) To publish a message to a newsgroup, forum, blog, etc.
    • I couldn't figure it out, so I posted a question on the mailing list.
    Derived terms
    *

    Adverb

    (-)
  • With the post, on post-horses; express, with speed, quickly
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 353:
    • In this posture were affairs at the inn when a gentleman arrived there post .
  • * 1888 , Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly’, Plain Tales from the Hills , Folio 2005, p. 93:
    • He prided himself on looking neat even when he was riding post .
  • sent via the postal service
    • Descendants
    * German: (l)

    Etymology 3

    Probably from (etyl) poste.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An assigned station; a guard post.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts . For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.}}
  • An appointed position in an organization.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 14, author=Angelique Chrisafis, work=Guardian
    • , title= Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism , passage=She was Nicolas Sarkozy's pin-up for diversity, the first Muslim woman with north African parents to hold a major French government post . But Rachida Dati has now turned on her own party elite with such ferocity that some have suggested she should be expelled from the president's ruling party.}}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To enter (a name) on a list, as for service, promotion, etc.
  • To assign to a station; to set; to place.
    • Post a sentinel in front of the door.
  • * De Quincey
    • It might be to obtain a ship for a lieutenant, or to get him posted .

    Etymology 4

    From (etyl) post

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • after; especially after a significant event that has long-term ramifications
  • * 2008 , Michael Tomasky, "Obama cannot let the right cast him in that 60s show", The Guardian , online,
    • One of the most appealing things for me about Barack Obama has always been that he comes post the post-60s generation.
  • * 2008 , Matthew Stevens, "Lew pressured to reveal what he knows", The Australian , online,
    • Lew reckons he had three options for the cash-cow which was Premier post the Coles sale.

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "post")

    See also

    * post-

    Anagrams

    * ----

    before

    English

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Earlier than (in time).
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
    • Before this treatise can become of use, two points are necessary.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 11, author=Rory Houston, work=RTE Sport
    • , title= Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland , passage=Stephen Ward then had to time his tackle excellently to deny Tarmo Kink as the Wolves winger slid the ball out of play before the Estonian could attempt to beat Given.}}
  • In front of in space.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.
  • *
    • He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
  • Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
  • * (John Ayliffe) (1676-1732)
    • If a suit be begun before an archdeacon
  • In store for, in the future of (someone).
  • * (Thomas Carlyle) (1795-1881)
    • The golden ageis before us.
  • In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
  • At a higher or greater position in a ranking.
  • * (Bible), (w) i. 15
    • He that cometh after me is preferred before me.
  • * (Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784)
    • The eldest son is before the younger in succession.

    Synonyms

    * (earlier than in time) by, no later than * (in front of in space) ahead of, in front of * (in front of according to an ordering system) ahead of

    Antonyms

    * (earlier than in time) after, later than * (in front of in space) behind * (in front of according to an ordering system) after

    Adverb

    (-)
  • At an earlier time.
  • * , chapter=12
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.}}
  • In advance.
  • At the front end.
  • * 1896 , (Hilaire Belloc), The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts , :
    • When people call this beast to mind,
    They marvel more and more
    At such a (little) tail behind,
    So LARGE a trunk before .

    Synonyms

    * (at an earlier time) previously * (in advance) ahead * (at the front end) in front

    Antonyms

    * (at an earlier time) after * (at the front end) behind

    Derived terms

    * beforehand * beforetime

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • in advance of the time when
  • (informal) rather or sooner than

    • Synonyms

    * (rather than) lest

    References

    * Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition , Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8

    Statistics

    * English locatives English sequence adverbs 1000 English basic words