postista

Postista is a noun used in some Romance-language contexts to refer to a person associated with postal services. In Italian, the term is not common in everyday speech, where postino is the standard word for a mail carrier; postista can appear in historical texts, formal job listings, or regional varieties to designate a postal worker or courier. In other languages that share Latin roots, a similar form may exist, but everyday usage often favors language-specific terms such as carteiro in Portuguese or courrier in French.

Etymology and form: the word is built from posta, meaning mail or post, plus the agent noun suffix -ista. This pattern appears in several Romance languages to form occupational or role-based terms, and postista roughly translates to “one who handles the post.”

Usage and scope: historically, postisti were employees of a postal service responsible for tasks such as mail sorting, transportation, and delivery, as well as customer service within post offices. In modern usage, the specific label postista is largely supplanted by more common job titles in many countries, but it remains found in archival material, legal texts, or descriptions of traditional postal work.

See also: postal worker, mail carrier, courier, post office clerk, Poste Italiane. Depending on the country, the contemporary job title for someone performing similar duties may differ, with local terms reflecting national postal service naming conventions.