Word of the Day

: May 5, 2008

posthaste

adverb POHST-HAYST

What It Means

: with all possible speed

posthaste in Context

When it became clear that the interviewee was inebriated and unable to speak coherently, the television station cut to commercial posthaste.

Did You Know?

In the 16th century, "haste, post, haste" was used to inform "posts," as couriers were then called, that a letter was urgent and must be hastily delivered. Posts would then speedily gallop along a route with a series of places at which to get a fresh horse or to relay the letter to a fresh messenger. Shakespeare was one of the first to use a version of the phrase adverbially in Richard II. "Old John of Gaunt . . . hath sent post haste / To entreat your Majesty to visit him," the Bard versified. He also used the phrase as an adjective in Othello (a use that is now obsolete): "The Duke . . . requires your haste-post-haste appearance," Lieutenant Cassio reports to the play's namesake.