View source for Posting (laundering process)

{{Verification|date=August 2023}}{{Other uses|Post (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Posting''' or '''postadh''' ([[Scottish Gaelic]]) is a [[archaism|term formerly used]] in Scotland for a process in [[laundry|washing clothes]]. It means to trample with the feet, or the act of trampling or treading. In scouring woollen clothing, blankets or coarse linen, when the strength of the arms and manual friction are found insufficient, [[Scottish Highlands|Highland]] women put them in a [[wikt:tub|tub]] with a prop – or quantity of water, then, with [[petticoat]]s tucked up, they began to "post", which they continued until every part of the clothes received an effectual cleansing. When three women were employed, one usually tramped in the middle, and the other two tramped around her. Treading cloth with the feet, a time-consuming and laborious practice, has long been superseded by mechanical methods, starting in the [[Industrial Revolution]].

There is some overlap with the process of [[textile manufacture|making cloth]], in that both involve textiles immersed in water. The processing of woollen cloth,  known in English as [[fulling]] or tucking, was "waulking" in Scots, hence the [[waulking song]]s that the women [[Work song|sang as they worked]].

==See also==
* [[List of laundry topics]]
*[[Grape treading]], which used to be a step in the process of making wine, using the feet to crush the fruit
*[[Washerwoman]]

==References==
{{Dwelly}} (Postadh)

{{Laundry navbox}}

[[Category:Laundry]]
[[Category:History of clothing]]
[[Category:Scottish clothing]]
[[Category:Foot]]
[[Category:Gendered occupations]]
[[Category:Scottish words and phrases]]


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