Posters Were Named After the Posts They Were Stuck To
A poster is a printed sheet for display. The name comes from posting bills on posts and walls.
A poster is a large printed sheet for public display. The name comes from the practice: bills were posted, that is, fixed to posts and walls, and *bill posting* was a trade. The warning *stick no bills* still survives on old walls. Lithography in the nineteenth century turned the poster from notice into art form.
- A printed display sheet. *A film poster.*
- One who posts. *A bill poster.*
- Poster child — a representative example. *The poster child for reform.*
- Post — to display publicly. *Post a notice.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | poster | A concert poster. |
| Plural | posters | Wall posters. |
| Verb | post | Post the results. |
| Compound | bill poster | A bill poster. |
| Related | billboard | A roadside billboard. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Stick no bills.An old warning against fly-posting.
- Lithography made poster art possible.Cheap colour printing.
- A poster child represents a cause.Originally a charity campaign term.
Poster history
- Bill posting — the trade of fixing printed notices
- Lithography — enabled cheap large-scale colour printing
- Toulouse-Lautrec — made the poster a recognised art form
- Wartime posters — propaganda on an industrial scale
- Fly-posting — putting up posters without permission, often illegal
From *post*, in the sense of a fixed upright, and the practice of fixing notices to them.
What does *stick no bills* mean?
Do not put up posters here. A bill is a printed notice, and the warning was painted on walls to deter fly-posting.
What is a poster child?
Originally a child featured in a charity appeal, and now anyone or anything taken as a representative example of something.