franking

[Victor Steinbok]

I agree that the 1940 cite is unclear, but my interpretation was 1.a. as
more likely. As for the girl getting her letter sent with a "fake"
stamp, that fits the very definition of franking==countersigned so as to
be free of required postage (money, not stamp).

The letter was certainly not "machine cancelled", but it might have been
cancelled by hand. But the point here is not that they cancelled the
stamp, but that they let it through without proper paid postage.

For the 1927 quote, your interpretation is also not 1.a., but the 1993
Addition. But I'm somewhat confused by the distinction you made between
"machine franking" and "postmarking". The 1993 Addition refers to
franking as both cancelling stamps (postmarking) and printing meters.
One thing the Times does not refer to is delivery of mail free of
charge, which is the main focus of 1.a.--or, at least, it should be.

As for the difference between the first and third "definition", it's
essentially the difference between pre-paid and post-paid. When you have
a "postage paid" envelope, with a meter mark or a stamp (or other
display of paid postage), the postage has already been paid. There is no
further postal transaction required other than delivering the envelope
once it's posted.

The "Business Reply" mail is a permitting post-paid process. The
business does not pay for the correspondence in advance--if they did,
magazines would go bankrupt. Either the items are paid for as they are
delivered or, alternatively, there may be some bulk-mail process under
which the business pays a lump sum that covers delivery of all business
reply mail (not practice used in the US, I believe). In a sense,
Business Reply is a type of COD account. But for the customer, they are
"franked"--that is, delivered free of charge.

The corresponding language is usually different--if a customer is being
asked to send in a return envelope, it's usually referred to as
postage-paid or stamped envelope (under the assumption that individual
customers don't use meters).

     VS-)

On 12/16/2011 2:12 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>> I read some of this a little differently than you, but I agree it is confusing.
>
> I find the 1940 cite unclear. Did the envelope have stamps and was
> cancelled, or was the enveloped printed with something accepted as postage?
>
> I interpret the 1951 cite as meaning a girl put fake stamps on an envelope,
> and the PO cancelled the stamps and delivered the letter. This is not 1a to
> my eyes.
>
> As for this 1927 cite:
>
> ___
>
>> 1927 /Times/ 25 Feb. 10/6   The posting of franked letters at a date
>> subsequent to that marked on the envelope is a violation of the terms
>> of the licence.
> This looks suspiciously as the meaning of franked="postmarked by a
> machine"
> ___
>
> This is referring to machine franking, but not postmarking. Stamps have no
> date; the date arrives with a postmark. Machine franking can have a date,
> and it would be a violation to post the letters on a date later than
> indicated in the franking.
>
> I don't see a difference between your first and third definitions of
> franking. I have a machine add postage to an envelope or card, mailed in
> another envelope, and the recipient can post the envelope or card back.
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      franking
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Congressional franking privileges have lead to a number of scandals in
>> the past (and at least one conviction). This week, a new franking
>> scandal is bubbling in Montana, so the term is back in the news again.
>>
>> The verb frank (v.2) and franking do appear in the OED. But the range of
>> definitions and examples is limited.
>>
>> With the exception of two subentries, all examples are from the 19th
>> century of earlier. Frank v.2 1.a. has one example from 1971, but it's
>> from British Elizabethan Stamps, so it actually refers to 19th century
>> practices. There should either be another sub-entry under 1. to refer to
>> the Congressional practice, or there should be a phrasal entry for
>> "franking privilege".
>>
>>> 1. a. /trans./ To superscribe (a letter, etc.) with a signature, so as
>>> to ensure its being sent without charge; to send or cause to be sent
>>> free of charge (/obs./ exc. /Hist./). Revived in later use: to mark (a
>>> letter, etc.) with a sign (in lieu of an affixed postage stamp) by
>>> means of a franking machine.
>>> 1927 [see franked adj. at Derivatives].
>>> 1971    D. Potter /Brit. Elizabethan Stamps/ xiii. 141   Letters and
>>> packets are franked with a handstamp or machine impression.
>>
>> The "Derivatives" subentries are also limited. Franked adj. and franking
>> n./adj. lack separate definitions, even though the items above that they
>> might be derived from are quite different and only some of them serve as
>> antecedents. In fact, Congressional franking practice is similar to the
>> one in Disraeli quote, yet this 1880 quote is the last one on the list.
>> Franked is one of the items that has modern quotations, yet, some of the
>> quotes reflect that meaning that's not even in the main entry--the 1927
>> and 1928 quotes correspond to the Draft Addition 1993, while 1955 and
>> 1965 quotes refer to "franked income" which is highlighted in the
>> all-too-brief lemma. But no examples of "plain" franked after 1928.
>>
>> The Draft Addition conveys one of the current meanings of the verb, but
>> the 1940 and 1951 quotes don't appear to correspond to it--they seem to
>> come from the older meaning (1.a.).
>>
>>> To stamp a postmark on (an envelope, parcel, etc.), esp. recording the
>>> date and place of posting; to cancel (a stamp) in this way.
>>> 1940 A. F. Harlow /Paper Chase/ xiv. 252   It was franked in an
>>> envelope of the National Recovery Administration--'Penalty for private
>>> use, $300.'
>>> 1951 /Sunday Pict./ 21 Jan. 4/3   The Post Office franked and
>>> delivered an unusual letter to Mrs J. M. Gooding. ...  Written from
>>> hospital by her young daughter she had posted it with a toy stamp
>>> issued by a store.
>>> ...
>> Also note that "franking machine" is mentioned in 1.a. lemma. But
>> Franking machine is a separate entry, at the moment, although it is
>> cross-referenced to frank v.2 and franking.
>>
>>>    An officially authorized machine, introduced by the British Post
>>> Office in 1922, used by large concerns for 'stamping' letters, etc.,
>>> with a sign (in lieu of an affixed postage stamp); it simultaneously
>>> records the cost of postage (this being periodically checked and
>>> collected by the Post Office).
>>> 1927 /Times /22 Feb. 10/4   Remembering to have read of a franking
>>> machine called a postage meter being recently issued to the public, I
>>> wrote to the P.M.G.
>>> 1961 /Lebende Sprachen /6 70/1   Postage meter machine (B[ritish]
>>> E[nglish]: franking machine).
>> I don't think it's just British English (although I could be wrong). But
>> also note the context of the 1927 quote.
>>
>> Now compare it to the 1927 quote under franked, which also is
>> cross-referenced under frank v.2 1.a.
>>
>>> 1927 /Times/ 25 Feb. 10/6   The posting of franked letters at a date
>>> subsequent to that marked on the envelope is a violation of the terms
>>> of the licence.
>> This looks suspiciously as the meaning of franked="postmarked by a
>> machine", which would fall under the Draft Addition 1993 rather than
>> under 1.a. This would both antedate that subentry and force the quote
>> from one subentry to another (which is a fair swap for the 1940 and 1951
>> quotes above). In fact, the "revived use" simply refers to the use of
>> the postal meter, which falls under Draft Addition 1993. So there is an
>> overlap between those two that should be cured. It's not a revival, so
>> much, as an entirely new meaning--1.a. (old) implied the letter was
>> being sent free of charge (to the poster), but the new one (postal
>> meter) implies that it is being sent without a formal postage stamp
>> (meaning that sticky piece of paper with an image on it, not a stamp
>> produced with an implement), but it is paid for.
>>
>> There also appear to be three different meanings of frank folded into
>> that draft addition. Two are spelled out while the third is unmentioned.
>> The first is just described--stamping a letter or package with a
>> franking machine or postal meter in lieu of a paper postage stamp. The
>> second refers to stamping date and time--either with a hand tool or via
>> a machine--onto the postage stamp. This is also known as "cancelling"
>> the stamp (originally meaning that the stamp is taken out of
>> circulation--particularly with stamp collectors--but now used to refer
>> to the whole process). The third meaning is to supply someone with a
>> "countersigned" envelope so that a letter (particularly business
>> correspondence) can be returned free of charge. In the US this includes
>> the practice of "Business Reply" envelopes or cards--they are ubiquitous
>> on magazine subscription cards, among others, but the familiar
>> black-line face has changed over the years. The "Business Reply"
>> correspondence is close to the original meaning of "franked" letters.
>>
>> Incidentally, "cancelled" also has no 20th century quotation and does
>> not mention stamps.
>>
>>      VS-)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org