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email

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Email, e-mail, E-Mail, and émail

English

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WOTD – 2 April 2020

Alternative forms

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Etymology 1

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Etymology tree
Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron)bor.
Latin ēlectrum
Proto-Indo-European *-kos
Proto-Indo-European *-ikos
Proto-Italic *-ikos
Latin -icus
New Latin ēlectricusbor.
English electric
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti
Proto-Hellenic *éimi
Ancient Greek ἰόν (ión)der.
English ion
blend
English electron
▲
Latin -icuslbor.
Old French -iquebor.
Middle English -ik
English -ic
English electronic
Proto-Indo-European *molko-der.?
Thracianbor.?
Proto-Germanic *malhō
Frankish *malhabor.
Medieval Latin malader.
Anglo-Norman malebor.
▲
Old French malebor.
Middle English male
English mail
English electronic mailabbr.
English email

    The noun is an abbreviation of electronic mail. First attested in the 1970s.[1] The verb is derived from the noun, by analogy with mail (“to send through the mail”).[2]

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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

    2. (uncountable) A system for sending messages and datas by means of a computer network, primarily the Internet, using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and the Internet Message Format.
      Synonym: mail
      Antonyms: mail, post, snail mail
      He sent me his details via email.
      The advent of email has simultaneously brought our society closer together and farther apart.
      Please stop sending me “constructive criticisms” via email, or telling me that “ I feel you are being defensive”, especially just after I have told you “you’re loved”. “Rewards” like that are horrible.
    4. (uncountable) The quantity of messages sent through an email system.
      Synonym: mail
      Antonyms: mail, post, snail mail
      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!
    6. (countable) A message being sent through email.
      Synonym: mail
      Antonym: mailpiece
      He sent me an email last week to remind me about the meeting.
      I archive my old emails using a cloud-based service.
    8. (countable, informal) An email address.
      What’s your email?
      In this system, your username is your email.
      Don’t send personal messages to my work email.
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Verb

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    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, ditransitive) To send (data) through email.
      I’ll email you the link.
      He emailed the file out to everyone.
    3. (intransitive) To send, or compose and then send, one or more emails.
      Most teenagers seem to spend almost the whole day emailing and surfing the Web.
    Translations
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    Etymology 2

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    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”). Doublet of smalt, smalto, and schmaltz.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    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, 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, 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, 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, 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
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    Derived terms
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    References

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    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, 2019–2022..
    2. ^ “email, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011; “email, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
    3. ^ “† email, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011.

    Further reading

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    Anagrams

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    Catalan

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    Etymology

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      Unadapted borrowing from English email.

      Noun

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      email m (plural emails)

      1. email
        Synonym: correu

      Chinese

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      Etymology 1

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      Borrowed from English email.

      Pronunciation

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      This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!
      Particularly: “is this used in Mandarin?”

      Noun

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      email

      1. email (message) (Classifier: 封 c)
      Synonyms
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      Verb

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      email

      1. to email (to send email to) (Classifier: 封 c)
      Synonyms
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      Etymology 2

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      Phono-semantic matching of Mandarin 疫苗 (yìmiáo, “vaccine”).

      Pronunciation

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      Noun

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      email

      1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism, humorous or sarcastic) vaccine; inoculation

      Czech

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      Czech Wikipedia has an article on:
      Wikipedia cs

      Alternative forms

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      Pronunciation

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      Noun

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      email m inan

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

      Usage notes

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

      Declension

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      Declension of email (hard masculine inanimate)
      singular plural
      nominative email emaily
      genitive emailu emailů
      dative emailu emailům
      accusative email emaily
      vocative emaile emaily
      locative emailu emailech
      instrumental emailem emaily

      Dutch

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      Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
      Wikipedia nl

      Etymology 1

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      Borrowed from Middle French émail, from Old French esmal.

      Pronunciation

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      • IPA(key): /eːˈmɑi̯/
      • Audio:(file)
      • Hyphenation: email

      Noun

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      email n (uncountable, no diminutive)

      1. enamel
        Synonym: emaus
      2. (heraldry) tincture
      Derived terms
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      Etymology 2

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      From e-mail.

      Noun

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      email m (plural emails, diminutive emailtje n)

      1. nonstandard spelling of e-mail

      Anagrams

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      French

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      French Wikipedia has an article on:
      Wikipedia fr

      Alternative forms

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      Etymology

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        Borrowed from English email.

        Pronunciation

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        Noun

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        email m (plural emails)

        1. (informal, anglicism) email
          Synonyms: courriel, courrier électronique, mail

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        Anagrams

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        Hungarian

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        Hungarian Wikipedia has an article on:
        Wikipedia hu

        Etymology

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

        Pronunciation

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

        Noun

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        email (usually uncountable, 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

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        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

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        See also

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        References

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        1. ^ István Tótfalusi (2005), Idegenszó-tár: Idegen szavak értelmező és etimológiai szótára [A Storehouse of Foreign Words: An Explanatory and Etymological Dictionary of Foreign Words], Budapest: Tinta, →ISBN
        • Krisztina Laczkó, Attila Mártonfi (2006), Helyesírás [Orthography], Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, →ISBN

        Further reading

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        • email in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
        • email in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2026).

        Indonesian

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        Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:
        Wikipedia id

        Etymology 1

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        Borrowed from Dutch email, from Middle French émail (Modern French émail), from Old French esmal, from Early Medieval Latin smaltum.

        Pronunciation

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        Noun

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        émail (plural email-email)

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

        Etymology 2

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        Internationalism

        Pronunciation

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        Noun

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        email (plural email-email)

        1. (colloquial) email
          Synonyms: pos elektronik, ratron, surat elektronik, pos-el, surel

        Further reading

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        Italian

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        Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
        Wikipedia it

        Noun

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        email m or f (invariable)

        1. email
          Synonym: e-mail

        Derived terms

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        Anagrams

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        Portuguese

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        Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:
        Wikipedia pt

        Etymology

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        Etymology tree
        Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron)bor.
        Latin ēlectrum
        Proto-Indo-European *-kos
        Proto-Indo-European *-ikos
        Proto-Italic *-ikos
        Latin -icus
        New Latin ēlectricusbor.
        English electric
        Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey-
        Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti
        Proto-Hellenic *éimi
        Ancient Greek ἰόν (ión)der.
        English ion
        blend
        English electron
        ▲
        Latin -icuslbor.
        Old French -iquebor.
        Middle English -ik
        English -ic
        English electronic
        Proto-Indo-European *molko-der.?
        Thracianbor.?
        Proto-Germanic *malhō
        Frankish *malhabor.
        Medieval Latin malader.
        Anglo-Norman malebor.
        ▲
        Old French malebor.
        Middle English male
        English mail
        English electronic mailabbr.
        English emailubor.
        Portuguese email

          Unadapted borrowing from English email.

          Noun

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          email m (plural emails)

          1. alternative spelling of e-mail

          Romanian

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          Romanian Wikipedia has an article on:
          Wikipedia ro

          Etymology 1

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          Borrowed from French émail.

          Pronunciation

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          Noun

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          email n (plural emailuri)

          1. enamel
          Declension
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          singular plural
          indefinite definite indefinite definite
          nominative-accusative email emailul emailuri emailurile
          genitive-dative email emailului emailuri emailurilor
          vocative emailule emailurilor

          Etymology 2

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          Unadapted borrowing from English email.

          Pronunciation

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          Noun

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          email n (plural emailuri)

          1. email
          Declension
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          singular plural
          indefinite definite indefinite definite
          nominative-accusative email emailul emailuri emailurile
          genitive-dative email emailului emailuri emailurilor
          vocative emailule emailurilor

          Spanish

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          Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:
          Wikipedia es

          Etymology

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            Unadapted borrowing from English.

            Pronunciation

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            Noun

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            email m (plural emails)

            1. email
            2. email address

            Usage notes

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            According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

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