The only exception is that you must use the hyphen when the form you’re combining with takes a capital, so post-Pliocene or post-Columbian compared with an established postmillennial or postnatal. Check with your publication’s style guide to be sure. You could have a post-ingestion problem, or you could have a problem post ingestion.Īd-hoc compounds formed with post- are almost always written with the hyphen, but it’s completely a matter of house style, with some historical practices (read, habits) weighing in. Me, I would not be surprised if that could be antedated - or by quixotic extension, dated ante the 1960s. Oxford Dictionaries Online says this freestanding practice began in the 1960s. This is a comparatively recent revival of the old Latin preposition post, which gave birth to the prefix post. Samples were collected one month post ingestion. It’s just a preposition equivalent to after in your example: Rather, it here functions a preposition whose object is ingestion.Īnd we never separate prepositional objects from their governing prepositions with hyphens.
In this case, post is neither a noun, a verb, nor an adverb, nor is it a prefix, either. There are also post- combining forms (like prefixes), which is probably what you were thinking here. The King, who was now in a hurry to marry Anne Boleyn, thought this such a good idea, that he sent for Cranmer, post haste, and said to LORD ROCHFORT, Anne Boleyn's father, 'Take this learned Doctor down to your country-house, and there let him have a good room for a study, and no end of books out of which to prove that I may marry your daughter.There are many post words in English, including not just as nouns and verbs but also more exotic parts of speech such as adverbs. Even in the 19th century, it was a go-to word for authors writing scenes set in times past:
#Post haste post office zip
Postal Service to promote the then-new system of ZIP codes.Īs delivery methods were upgraded, post-haste as a command carried with it a scent of antiquity, and was used as a signifier of such. McFeely from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ("Speedy Delivery!") to Mr. The association of courier service with speed and promptness occurs throughout a lot of popular culture, from the character Mr. post office was modeled on the post roads in England used to deliver royal mail, with couriers posted at intervals to deliver the mail along the route. The Duke does greet you, general,Īnd he requires your haste-post-haste appearance, Suddenly taken and hath sent poste-hasteĬASSIO. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord, The notion caught on so quickly that post-haste was seeing use as an adjective and adverb by the end of the 16th century.īUSHY. We also have a post office on site for your convenience. Post Haste Pharmacy 4401 Sheridan St Hollywood FL 33021. In other words, the work of a courier was so routinely associated with speed and efficiency that it was used as a reference point in the language for others doing speedy labors. Get directions, reviews and information for Post Haste Pharmacy in Hollywood, FL. Post-haste later came to mean great promptness and speed for any purpose, and was used in phrases like in post-haste and in all post-haste. In the 16th century, "haste, post, haste" was used to inform couriers (also called posts) that a letter was urgent. In Middle English, post haste was a noun for the speed with which a person delivering mail was pressed to do their job. The post in posthaste has to do with the mail.
If you didn't already know the etymology of posthaste, you might see the post at the beginning of the word and assume that it's functioning as a prefix meaning "after," the way it does in Latin words like postmortem, or in English words like postgame or postgraduate, or in movements of art or critical theory like postmodernism or post-structuralism. When the House passed in May the HEROES Act designed to bring billions to cash-strapped New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo urged the Senate to pass it posthaste - warning that “there will be cuts” without the financial aid.
If you like tahini desserts or sweet sesame treats, you should make sesame oil brownies posthaste. These brownies are nutty and a little savory, with an aroma so intoxicating, you may find that your nose constantly gravitates towards the pan, pulling the rest of your head with it.
Even when posthaste is used in contemporary journalism-in the same contexts in which one might see the initialism ASAP or the hospital jargon stat-there is often a wink accompanying it: