ale post

English

Alternative forms
  • ale-post
  • alepost

Noun

ale post (plural ale posts)

  1. A post displaying a pub sign; an alestake.
    • 1808, Joseph Hall, Works:
      O honor, farre beyond a brazen shrine,
      To sit with Tarleton on an ale post's signe
    • 1957, Alfred Edgar Coppard, It's Me, O Lord!:
      I believe it was the George the Something or other, although I feel sure that no monarch of any era would have felt at home in the neighbourhood or been gratified by the alepost's honourable mention of him.
    • 1991, Simone Zelitch, The Confession of Jack Straw, →ISBN:
      I looked for the alepost of the Fighting Cock, and found none.

Usage notes

Many nineteenth century dictionaries and wordlists define ale post as a maypole. This is an error which originated in Thomas Speght's Life of Chaucer and was copied by others.[1]

References
  1. Walter William Skeat, Chaucer's Works, notes on the prologue to the Cantebury Tales.

Anagrams
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