Etymology

postilion

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Today it means: A rider mounted on the near (left) leading horse who guides the team pulling a carriage. Full definition →

Middle French postillon ← Italian postiglione
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The story

  1. Italian · derived frompostiglione“guide for driver of post-coach”
  2. Middle French · derived frompostillon
  3. English todaypostilion

From Middle French postillon, and its likely source, Italian postiglione (“guide for driver of post-coach”), from posta (“post”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.