| electronic mail (e-mail) Messages automatically passed from one computer user to another, often through computer and/or via over telephone lines. A message, especially one following the common , begins with several lines of , followed by a blank line, and the body of the message. An increasing number of e-mail systems support the which allows the message body to contain "" of different kinds rather than just one block of plain text. It is conventional for the body to end with a . Headers give the name and of the sender and recipient(s), the time and date when it was sent and a subject. There are many other headers which may get added by different during delivery. The message is "composed" by the sender, usuallya using a special program - a "" (MUA). It is then passed to some kind of "" (MTA) - a program which is responsible for either delivering the message locally or passing it to another MTA, often on another . MTAs on different hosts on a network often communicate using . The message is eventually delivered to the recipient's - normally a file on his computer - from where he can read it using a mail reading program (which may or may not be the same as used by the sender). Contrast , , . The form "email" is also common, but is less suggestive of the correct pronunciation and derivation than "e-mail". The word is used as a noun for the concept ("Isn't e-mail great?", "Are you on e-mail?"), a collection of (unread) messages ("I spent all night reading my e-mail"), and as a verb meaining "to send (something in) an e-mail message" ("I'll e-mail you (my report)"). The use of "an e-mail" as a count noun for an e-mail message, and plural "e-mails", is now (2000) also well established despite the fact that "mail" is definitely a mass noun. Oddly enough, the word "emailed" is actually listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. It means "embossed (with a raised pattern) or arranged in a net work". A use from 1480 is given. The word is derived from French "emmailleure", network. Also "email" is German for enamel. (2001-01-29) |
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