mail carrier

Also known as mailman, postman, postal carrier, mailwoman, postie, postwoman, letter carrier

employee of the post office or postal service, who delivers mail to residences and businesses

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

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19th-century English postman A mail carrier, also referred to as a mailman, mailperson, postal carrier, postman, postperson, person of post, letter carrier (in American English), or colloquially postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post office or postal service who delivers mail and parcel post to residences and businesses. The term "mail carrier" came to be used as a gender-neutral substitute for "mailman" soon after women began performing the job. In the Royal Mail, the official name changed from "letter carrier" to "postman" in 1883, and "postwoman" has also been used for many years.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “mail carrier” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.