What is the origin of the word postal?

Answer 1

"To go postal" is a slang phrase, meaning to suddenly and violently lose your temper, blow up, flip out, or erupt in a sudden rage that seems to have no explanation or to be wildly out of proportion to its cause. This is because of a very unfortunate incident back in the late '80s or early '90s (if I recall correctly), in which a U.S. Postal Service worker became disgruntled over something (he may have been fired, or passed over for promotion -- I don't remember), left the Post Office where he was working, came back with an assault weapon, and shot the place to smithereens, killing several of his co-workers, some innocent customers, and then himself. It was a shocking massacre, the more so because the guy was apparently a very quiet type who kept to himself, so no one had ever thought of him as potentially violent. The shock to society at the time was similar to the recent Virginia Tech shooting. The worst part was that after this incident, there were other similar ones in which a "quiet" guy suddenly snapped and committed a horrible mass murder. A number of the "copycat" incidents involved other postal workers, and suddenly the U.S. Postal Service had a public-relations nightmare on its hands, as customers were afraid to go to the Post Office and USPS employees were afraid to come to work. I'm not a postal worker -- maybe there's one reading this who can correct me? -- but as I recall, the USPS responded to the incident by putting up bullet-proof glass windows at some Post Office counters and starting some sort of stress-prevention program for their employees. I don't know if it worked, but I hope so. As it happens, the postal workers at my local Post Office are friendly and helpful! :-)

Answer 2

The word "postal" comes from the Latin word "positus," meaning placed or laid down. It later evolved through French and Italian to become the English word we use today.