▪ I. postcard, n.
(ˈpəʊstkɑːd)
[f. post n.2 + card n.2]
1. A pasteboard card of a regulation size, bearing a representation of a postage stamp or an equivalent design, officially sold to be used for correspondence. Also, since 1 Sept. 1894, a blank, private, or unofficial card of the same dimensions (blank postcard) to be furnished with an adhesive stamp for the proper amount of postage.
The postcard issued in Great Britain 1 Oct. 1870 cost ½d.; cards of higher prices from 1d. to 3d. were issued later for foreign correspondence (the first being the 11/4d. card of 1875); from 1879 the postcard rate for countries within the postal union was 1d. An equivalent rate for foreign correspondence is used in most other countries; but for internal correspondence their rates differ. (N.E.D.) pictorial postcard or picture postcards are cards (usually blank) bearing a picture on the reverse side, the sending and collection of which began to become prevalent shortly before 1900.
| 1870 Oct. 1 (Inscription) Post Card. The address only to be written on this side. Halfpenny. 1870 Dame Europa's School 16 He wrote home to his mother, on the back of a halfpenny post card, so that all the letter carriers might see how pious he was. 1872 Punch 3 Feb. 51/2 He gets a post⁓card informing him that he is proposed to the House. 1890 Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Feb. 2/3 The post-card was an Austrian invention, brought out in 1868, with a separate issue the following year for Hungary... We adopted the plan in 1870. 1899 Picture post-card [see picture n. 6 d]. 1901 Daily News 26 Mar. 5/1 The idea of the postcard first came to Dr. Stephan, late German Postmaster-General, who submitted his plan of a postcard, which was rejected at the time, to a German Postal Congress in 1865. |
2. a. attrib., as
postcard album,
postcard flower,
postcard-monger,
postcard-photograph,
postcard poll,
postcard portrait,
postcard stand,
postcard survey,
postcard system;
postcard-size adj.| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 19 Aug. 8/1 They have supplied the market with a postcard album. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 436c Post Card Albums. 1929 R. Graves Poems 21 Post-card flower of Kodak mud. 1938 New Statesman 13 Aug. 241/2 He can make his way..to..the Museums, outside which eager postcard-mongers will sell him views of Westminster Abbey and the Tower. |
| 1920 T. P. Nunn Education x. 126 A postcard-photograph of a yacht. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 19 Mar. 1/6 There had been strong opposition..to the Sunday concerts, and a postcard poll was taken. |
| 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 436c These Albums have been designed to hold the Post Card Portraits now so popular. 1926 Paper Terminol. (Spalding & Hodge, Ltd.) 21 Post Card size... Generally applied to a board measuring 22½ x 28 in., out of which 32 official post cards may be cut. 1973 R. Busby Pattern of Violence iv. 60 A handful of postcard-size prints. |
| 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 428 Post card stand. 1948 Shell Aviation News No. 120. 5/3 The study is based on a post-card survey of about 17,000 aircraft owners, and shows that an estimated 9,800,000 hours were flown by non-scheduled aircraft in 1946. |
| 1897 Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 3/2 Having adopted the custom of book-retention by the post-card system. |
b. Designating something picturesque, as
postcard land,
postcard sky,
postcard view.
| 1958 Spectator 14 Feb. 204/1 A postcard land of blossom, and bridges humped over gurgling streams. 1959 Woman's Own 16 May 13/1 The shining sea. The postcard sky. 1959 Listener 12 Mar. 459/1 He [sc. Utrillo] was undoubtedly clever at enlarging, squaring-up, colouring and feeling his way into postcard views of paintable motifs. 1979 M. A. Sharp Sunflower v. 45 They were crossing the Triboro Bridge, with its postcard view of the city. |
c. Special
Combs., as
postcard beauty, a fashionable beauty whose picture appeared on postcards which were collected by admirers.
| 1924 G. B. Shaw Let. in To a Young Actress (1960) 66, I think you will gravitate towards literature after a reign as a postcard beauty. 1958 Sunday Times 28 Sept. 4/7 She was included among the postcard beauties of her musical-comedy days. |
▪ II. ˈpostcard, v. [f. the n.] a. trans. To communicate with or inform by postcard.
b. intr. To send a postcard.
| 1910 Westm. Gaz. 2 Feb. 5/3 (Advt.), Patterns ready for sending by return post. Postcard us to-day. 1947 Ki-grams (Washington, D.C. Kiwanis Club) 6 Feb., Zeddie Blackistone post-cards about the flowers, the sunshine and golf at Palm Beach. |