postmaster
Pluralpostmasters
- 1The official who manages a post office and oversees its daily operations.
The new postmaster reorganized the delivery routes across the county.
She was appointed postmaster of the town in 1998.
- 2The administrator responsible for running an electronic mail system and its accounts.
The postmaster traced the bounced messages to a misconfigured server.
Our company's postmaster blocked the domain after repeated phishing attempts.
Note
Email borrowed the title directly from the post office. The person who keeps a domain's mail moving is its postmaster, much as the head of a post office keeps letters moving. The role comes with a conventional address, postmaster@ followed by the domain name. Mail standards expect every domain to accept messages there, so that someone can be told about delivery problems.
- 3A scholar at Merton College, Oxford, who holds a foundation scholarship; also called a portionist.
The postmaster dined at high table alongside the fellows.
He was elected a postmaster of Merton in his second year.
Less common meaning
- 4A person in charge of a posting station, providing lodging for travelers and supplying fresh post horses.
The postmaster harnessed a fresh team while the coach passengers warmed themselves by the fire.
At each stage the postmaster exchanged the weary horses for rested ones.
Note
Here post means the relay of horses along a road. The postmaster kept the station where coaches changed teams and travelers found a bed. The use is archaic and belongs to writing about the era of coach travel. It is older than the post-office meaning, which carried the title over once letters, rather than horses, became the business of the post.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from the words 'post' and 'master'.