Talk:Postmaster (disambiguation)
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Postmasters at Merton
[edit]Two points — one internal to Wikipedia, one about the etymology. First, the word "postmaster" in the article on Merton College occurs only once, and links to this page; there's something unsatisfactory about that, as the only relevant link here simply takes the reader back to the Merton page. Secondly, this page presents the etymology of the term as though it were clear and uncontroversial. The O.E.D. disagrees:
Origin: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant or alteration of another lexical item.. Perhaps a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: PORTIONIST n.; Latin portionista.
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of portionist n. (although this is first attested slightly later) or its etymon post-classical Latin portionista, after MASTER n.1 or perhaps POSTMASTER n.1; with the β form perhaps compare MINISTER n.
The word has also been explained as an alteration of an unattested post-classical Latin form *post-magister or *post-minister (although compare the English form post mynster), on account of the fact that the scholars were at one time servitors to the Masters or Fellows, perhaps standing behind their chairs at dinner, etc. But neither *post-magister nor *post-minister occurs in the college register, where the term used appears always to be portionista.