Postmistresses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A female postal worker responsible for operating a post office and managing mail delivery services within a specific area
2. A woman who oversees postal operations, ensuring the efficient handling and distribution of mail at a post office
3. An individual in charge of a post office, where she manages the receipt and dispatch of letters and packages to the community

Etymology: "Postmistresses" is the plural of "postmistress," a woman in charge of a post office. The word combines "post," the system for carrying letters, with "mistress," which in its older sense meant a woman who holds authority or runs a household or enterprise. "Postmistress" is a formal compound built from these two parts, and the feminine ending marks the woman who holds the office. Its first element, "post," reaches English from French and ultimately Latin, where "positus" meant "placed," and in English it came to mean a fixed stage or station along a route, then the mail service that served those stations. The sense of a mounted courier passing letters from one station to the next helps explain why the office and its keeper took the name.

Synonyms: postal managers, mail supervisors, mail oversees, post office heads, postal administrators