email

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See also: Email, e-mail, E-Mail, and émail

English

WOTD – 2 April 2020

Etymology 1

The noun is an abbreviation of electronic mail.[1] The verb is derived from the noun, by analogy with mail (“to send through the mail”).[2]

Pronunciation

Noun

email (countable and uncountable, plural emails) (computing)

  1. (uncountable) A system for transferring messages from one computer to another, usually through a network.
    Antonym: snail mail
    He sent me his details via email.
    The advent of email has simultaneously brought our society closer together and farther apart.
  2. (uncountable) A quantity of messages sent through an email system.
    I am searching through my old email.
    My inbox used to allow only 50 MB of email at a time until last year, when they upgraded it to 2 GBs!
  3. (countable) A message sent through an email system.
    He sent me an email last week to remind me about the meeting.
    I archive my old emails using a cloud-based service.
  4. (countable, informal) An email address.
    What’s your email?
    Don’t send personal messages to my work email.
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations
email address — See also translations at e-mail address

Verb

email (third-person singular simple present emails, present participle emailing, simple past and past participle emailed)

  1. (transitive) To send an email or emails to.
    She emailed me last week, asking about the status of the project.
  2. (transitive, may take two objects) To send (something) through email.
    I’ll email you the link.
    He emailed the file out to everyone.
  3. (intransitive) To send, or compose and send, an email or emails.
    Most teenagers seem to spend almost the whole day emailing and surfing the Web.
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle French email, from Old French esmal (“enamel”) (modern French émail (“enamel; vitreous enamel; glaze (coating on pottery)”)),[3] from Medieval Latin smaltum (“enamel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to melt; to soften”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

email (plural emails)

  1. (obsolete, rare) Enamel (“an opaque, glossy coating”).
    • 1579 January 11, George Puttenham, “[Appendix] Partheniades [No. 15; believed to have been presented to Elizabeth I of England on 1 January 1579 (Julian calendar)]”, in Joseph Haslewood, editor, Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poësy (Miscellanea Poetica Anglicana Antiqua; 1), volume I, London: Printed by Harding and Wright, […], for Robert Triphook, […], published 1811, OCLC 1008346126, page xxxiv:
      Set Naples courser to an asse, / Fine emerawde vnto greene glasse: / Set rich rubye to redd emayle, / The raven's plume to peacocke's tayle: / [...] / There shall no less an oddes be seene, / In myne from everye other Queene!
    • 1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, The Terrors of the Night or, A Discourse of Apparitions, London: Printed by Iohn Danter for William Iones, […], OCLC 222298977, signature Diii; republished in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Complete Works of Thomas Nashe. In Four Volumes. […] (The Huth Library), volume III, London; Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: Printed [by Hazell, Watson, and Viney] for private circulation only, 1883–1884, OCLC 932008005, pages 242–243:
      It is reported, that the Pope long ſince gaue them [the people of Iceland] a diſpenſation to receiue the Sacrament in ale, inſomuch as for their vnceſſant froſts there, no wine but was turned to red emayle, as ſoone as euer it came amongſt them.
      In other words, the weather was so cold that wine froze and resembled red enamel.
    • 1684, [Samuel] Du Clos, “The Eighth Class. Of Cold Waters somewhat Aigre and Vinous, which Participate of a Salt Resembling the Nitre of the Ancients.”, in Observations on the Mineral Waters of France, Made in the Royal Academy of the Sciences, […] Now Made English, London: Printed for Henry Faithorne, and John Kersey […], OCLC 228725437, pages 96–97:
      Another part of this Earth being mixt with an equal part of its Salt, and put on the Fire to melt, in part pierc'd thro the Crucible, which was found on the outside, as it were, lin'd with a Brown Email, and the inside of the Crucible was cover'd with a Clear-Red Email.
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Related terms

References

  1. ^ “email, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011; “email, n.” in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press..
  2. ^ “email, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011; “email, v.” in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ “† email, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011.

Further reading

Anagrams

Czech

Alternative forms

Noun

email m

  1. enamel
  2. (informal) email (electronic communication)

Usage notes

Some institutions discourage this spelling of electronic communication in favor of e-mail.

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

email n (uncountable)

  1. enamel
  2. (heraldry) tincture

Derived terms

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English email.

Noun

email m (plural emails)

  1. (informal) email

Synonyms

See also

Anagrams

Hungarian

Etymology

From French émail, from Old French esmal, from Frankish *smalt.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈɛmɒʲil], [ˈɛmaːj], [ˈɛmaːjl]
  • Hyphenation: email

Noun

email (plural emailok)

  1. enamel, glaze (an opaque, glassy coating baked onto metal or ceramic objects)
    Synonym: zománc
  2. enamel (the hard covering on the exposed part of a tooth)
    Synonym: fogzománc

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative email emailok
accusative emailt emailokat
dative emailnak emailoknak
instrumental emaillal emailokkal
causal-final emailért emailokért
translative emaillá emailokká
terminative emailig emailokig
essive-formal emailként emailokként
essive-modal — —
inessive emailban emailokban
superessive emailon emailokon
adessive emailnál emailoknál
illative emailba emailokba
sublative emailra emailokra
allative emailhoz emailokhoz
elative emailból emailokból
delative emailról emailokról
ablative emailtól emailoktól
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		emailé emailoké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		emailéi emailokéi
Possessive forms of email
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. emailom emailjaim
2nd person sing. emailod emailjaid
3rd person sing. emailja emailjai
1st person plural emailunk emailjaink
2nd person plural emailotok emailjaitok
3rd person plural emailjuk emailjaik

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Tótfalusi, István. Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára (’A Storehouse of Foreign Words: an explanatory and etymological dictionary of foreign words’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2005. →ISBN
  • Laczkó, Krisztina and Attila Mártonfi. Helyesírás (’Orthography’). Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, 2006. →ISBN

Italian

Noun

email m or f (invariable)

  1. email
    Synonym: e-mail

Derived terms

Anagrams

Spanish

Etymology

English

Noun

email m (plural emails)

  1. email
  2. email address
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