email

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

English[edit]

WOTD – 2 April 2020

Etymology 1[edit]

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]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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 (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[edit]

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

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[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “email, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: 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, Oxfordshire: 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, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2011.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English email.

Noun[edit]

email m (plural emails)

  1. email
    Synonym: correu

Chinese[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from English email.

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

email

  1. email (message) (Classifier: 封 c)
Synonyms[edit]

Verb[edit]

email

  1. to email (to send email to) (Classifier: 封 c)
Synonyms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

email

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

Czech[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

email m inan

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

Usage notes[edit]

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

Declension[edit]

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Dutch[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Middle French émail, from Old French esmal.

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

email n (uncountable)

  1. enamel
    Synonym: emaus
  2. (heraldry) tincture
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From e-mail.

Noun[edit]

email m (plural emails, diminutive emailtje n)

  1. Nonstandard spelling of e-mail.

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English email.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

email m (plural emails)

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

See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Hungarian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  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 with Attila Mártonfi (2006) Helyesírás [Orthography], Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, →ISBN

Further reading[edit]

  • email in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
  • email in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)

Italian[edit]

Noun[edit]

email m or f (invariable)

  1. email
    Synonym: e-mail

Derived terms[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from French émail.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

email n (plural emailuri)

  1. enamel
Declension[edit]
Declension of email
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) email emailul (niște) emailuri emailurile
genitive/dative (unui) email emailului (unor) emailuri emailurilor
vocative emailule emailurilor

Etymology 2[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English email.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

email n (plural emailuri)

  1. email
Declension[edit]
Declension of email
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) email emailul (niște) emailuri emailurile
genitive/dative (unui) email emailului (unor) emailuri emailurilor
vocative emailule emailurilor

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

email m (plural emails)

  1. email
  2. email address

Usage notes[edit]

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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