| 释义 |
ˈpostage ˈstamp
[f. postage1 + stamp n.]
A. n.
a. An official stamp, either a stamp embossed on an envelope or impressed on a card or wrapper, or else (now usually) a small adhesive label having a specified face-value (in Great Britain from 1p upward), and bearing a design of a certain pattern and colour appropriated to its value, sold by or on behalf of the Post Office, to be affixed to any letter or packet sent by post, as a means of prepayment of postage, and as evidence of such payment.
The design is generally the head of the Sovereign or Ruler (whence in Great Britain the early popular appellation ‘Queen's head’), or the national arms or emblems, but many countries use various symbolic or fanciful pictorial devices, historical portraits, etc.
The name stamp was originally applied to the marks stamped or impressed by the Post Office on letters for various purposes, among others that of stating whether they were ‘prepaid’, ‘unpaid’, ‘free’, partly paid, or paid by the twopenny or other post. When adhesive labels and impressed envelopes were introduced in 1840, these took the place of the ‘paid’ or ‘prepaid’ stamp, and appear to have been popularly called ‘postage stamps’ from the first. The official and more accurate name was postage label; but the popular usage prevailed; by 1850 postage label stamp was in official use, and finally postage stamp was accepted. The actual stamps (Ger. briefstempel) which continued to be impressed by the Post Office after 1840, to show the place and date of postage and arrival, and to obliterate or deface the postage-label, are now usually distinguished as post-marks and obliteration-stamps or -marks.
1840Times 5 May 6/4 The Penny Postage Stamps... The Lords of the Treasury having fixed the 6th of May next for the issue of postage stamps. 1847in Rep. Sel. Comm. Postage Label Stamps (1852) 1 The machine [Archer's] appears to be a very clever and useful invention; we are thoroughly convinced that postage stamps separated by it, having jagged edges, will adhere to letters far better than those cut from the sheets by knives or scissors. 1852Ibid. 2 Mr. Bokenham told me..he was very desirous about the sticking of the postage stamps to the letters, as there were upwards of 400 found daily loose in the bags. a1862G. H. Lewes Let. to Parker in Pearson's 76th Catal. (1894) 39, I have read Fraser, and having read it must keep it and enclose postage stamps. 1862Boston Even. Transcr. 20 July 2/1 Postage stamps have come extensively into public use during the present scarcity of silver coin. They are issued by the Post Office Departments of eight values. [1862S. P. Chase Rep. Sec. U.S. Treas. 4 Dec. 28 It was soon discovered that stamps prepared for postage uses were not adapted to the purposes of currency.] 1862M. Blair Rep. Postmaster Gen. U.S. 1 Dec. 133 The issue of ‘postage currency’ by the Treasury Department will doubtless soon displace postage stamps from circulation. 1897O. Firth Postage Stamps 3 Every⁓one is..aware of the purpose of a postage stamp, viz. to prepay postage, and to serve as an indication that the proper amount has been paid. 1907Post Office Guide Jan. 139 Embossed or impressed postage stamps cut out of envelopes, post-cards, letter-cards, newspaper wrappers, or telegram forms may be used as adhesive stamps in payment of postage.
b. transf. and fig.
1908[see dod-]. 1930R. Graves Ten Poems More 4 It is a large patch,..The postage-stamp of its departure,..closing in now To a plain countryside of less and less. 1971M. Tak Truck Talk 121 Postage stamp, state permits in the form of a small decals that must be placed on a tractor. 1978J. Gores Gone, no Forwarding vii. 42 Kearny began pacing the postage stamp of space behind his desk.
c. attrib. and Comb., as postage-stamp damper, postage stamp size, postage stamp statistics, postage stamp system; postage-stamp-sized adj.; esp. connected with the collecting of postage stamps as the objects of philatelic interest, as postage-stamp collecting, postage stamp collection, postage stamp collector, postage stamp dealer, etc.; postage-stamp album, postage stamp catalogue; postage-stamp currency (U.S.) = postage currency: see postage1 6.
1852Rep. Sel. Comm. Postage Label Stamps 2 The efficient working of the postage-stamp system. 1862Boston Even. Transcr. 1 Aug. 2/3 The Postmaster-General and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue have approved of the specimens of the postage stamp currency, which will be for five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents. 1862(title) Postage-stamp Collector's Album. 1889Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 361 Postage-stamp damper. 1968A. Diment Gt. Spy Race vi. 78 She wore nothing but the white, postage stamp-sized panties. 1968‘R. Raine’ Night of Hawk viii. 38 A postage-stamp-sized moustache.
B. as adj., used to denote something very small.
1962Housewife (Ceylon) Feb. 33, I am certainly a veteran at providing the family with reasonably good food on a postage stamp budget. 1965New Society 14 Oct. 5/3 Postage-stamp photos of smiling typists. 1968J. Wainwright Web of Silence 137 A postage-stamp dance floor. 1971R. Busby Deadlock iii. 32 Chrysanthemums were blooming in the postage stamp garden. 1973‘R. MacLeod’ Nest of Vultures ii. 40 Spotlights were trained on a postage-stamp stage.
Hence postage-stamped ppl. a., supplied with a postage stamp.
1942Partridge Usage & Abusage 241/2 In the British Empire, a postcard may be already postage-stamped or it may require a postage stamp, in the U.S.A., it requires one, an already postage-stamped card being in the States a postal card. |