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email: /ee´mayl/ (also written ‘e-mail’ and ‘E-mail’) 1. n. Electronic mail
automatically passed through computer networks and/or via modems over
common-carrier lines. Contrast snail-mail,
paper-net, voice-net. See
network address. 2. vt. To send electronic
mail. Oddly enough, the word emailed
is actually listed in the OED; it means “embossed (with a raised
pattern) or perh. arranged in a net or open work”. A use from 1480
is given. The word is probably derived from French émaillé (enameled) and related to
Old French emmailleüre
(network). A French correspondent tells us that in modern French,
‘email’ is a hard enamel obtained by heating special paints in
a furnace; an ‘emailleur’ (no final e) is a craftsman who makes
email (he generally paints some objects (like, say, jewelry) and cooks them
in a furnace). There are numerous spelling variants of this word. In Internet
traffic up to 1995, ‘email’ predominates, ‘e-mail’
runs a not-too-distant second, and ‘E-mail’ and
‘Email’ are a distant third and fourth.
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