Meaning & Analysis
To speak in a hurried, breathless, impetuous manner—rattling off words too fast, often before due thought or courtesy.
Insights
Impatient haste
Speech that outruns judgment: the tongue gallops ahead of the mind, inviting mistakes and ill-considered commitments.
Discourtesy
Rapid, pressing talk disregards the listener’s pace and dignity—especially improper in courtship or deference contexts.
Performance over substance
Fluent speed can masquerade as wit or knowledge, using velocity to dazzle while skimming depth.
Anxious urgency
Breathless delivery signals agitation or fear, where talking fast substitutes for calm control.
Comprehension gap
Words delivered ‘post’ outstrip the listener’s processing, producing misunderstanding and conversational drag.
Postal metaphor
‘Post’ evokes mounted couriers and relay stations; as an adverb it meant ‘swiftly’ (cf. ‘post-haste’). To ‘talk post’ maps courier speed onto speech.
Civility norms
Early modern etiquette linked measured pace with respect; sources mark ‘talking post’ to a lady as bad manners—speed reads as presumption.
Rhetorical delivery
Classical pronuntiatio prized cadence and pause; over-haste flattens emphasis and clarity, weakening persuasion despite showy fluency.
Cognitive load
High rate speech raises processing load and error risk; slow, chunked delivery preserves accuracy and rapport.
Balanced maxim
In the proverb tradition, this cautions against the opposite of ‘Least talk most work’: when words are required, apt pacing—not velocity—does the work.
Status signal
Those seeking leverage may ‘talk post’ to control tempo and forestall questions; listeners can reclaim power by slowing the exchange.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
Transfers the speed of postal riders to speech, turning pace into a moral and social index.
Adverbial noun
‘Post’ functions adverbially, a compact idiom that compresses ‘with post-haste’ into a single, vivid tag.
Ellipsis
Omits qualifiers (‘too fast,’ ‘improperly’), relying on shared norms to supply the negative charge.
Rhythmic terseness
Monosyllabic punch (‘talk post’) mirrors the brusque, clipped pace it condemns.
Antithesis (implied)
Sets haste against decorum and clarity, inviting the hearer to prefer measured speech over rapid patter.
Transcription
Quotations
Some haue the agility to ride Poast, some the facility to runne Poast; some the dexterity to write Post, and some the ability to speake, poast.
'Twere no good manners to speak hastily to a gentlewoman, to talk post (as they say) to his mistress.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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