email

e-mail or email (ˈiːmeɪl)
—n
1.	short for electronic mail
—vb
2.	to contact (a person) by electronic mail
3.	to send (a message, document, etc) by electronic mail
email or email
—n
—vb
'e-mailer or email
—n

e-mail

email

a type of pottery design pattern, c.1877, from Fr., lit. "enamel" (see enamel).

e-mail or email   (ē'māl')  Pronunciation Key  A system for sending and receiving messages electronically over a computer network. E-mail is asynchronous and does not require the receiver of the message to be online at the time the message is sent or received. E-mail also allows a user to distribute messages to large numbers of recipients instantaneously. A message or messages sent or received by such a system.

e-mail (electronic mail)

E-mail has become one of the most widely used aspects of the Internet, because it provides a means of mass communication to almost anywhere in the world at high speed.

Note: The proliferation of spam and the transmission of computer viruses through e-mail attachments are two of the more problematic aspects of this technology.

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 `e'maille'' (enameled) and related to Old French `emmailleu"re' (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.

e-mail electronic mail