# email
## English
### Etymology 1

The noun is an abbreviation of electronic mail. The verb is derived from the noun, by analogy with mail (“to send through the mail”).

#### Alternative forms

* e-mail

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈiːmeɪl/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (Canada):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈiˌmeɪl/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Rhymes: -iːmeɪl

#### Noun

email (countable and uncountable, plural emails) (computing)
* (uncountable) A system for transferring messages from one computer to another, usually through a network.
    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.
* (uncountable) A 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!
* (countable) A message sent through an email system.
    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.
* (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

* cold email
* e-barrassment
* email account
* email address, e-mail address
* email bankruptcy
* email bomb
* email client
* emailee
* emailer
* Emailgate
* email ID
* email list
* email reader
* email storm
* emailware
* freemail
* junk email
* play-by-email
* registered email

##### Translations
#### Verb

email (third-person singular simple present emails, present participle emailing, simple past and past participle emailed)
* (transitive) To send an email or emails to.
    She emailed me last week, asking about the status of the project.
* (transitive, ditransitive) To send (something) through email.
    I’ll email you the link.
    He emailed the file out to everyone.
* (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
#### See also

* webmail

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle French email, from Old French esmal (“enamel”) (modern French émail (“enamel; vitreous enamel; glaze (coating on pottery)”)), from Medieval Latin smaltum (“enamel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to melt; to soften”). Doublet of smalt, smalto, and schmaltz.

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: ĕ-mālʹ, IPA: /ɛˈmeɪl/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪl

#### Noun

email (plural emails)
* (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

* emayle

##### Derived terms

* email ink
* emailled (adjective)

##### Related terms

* email ombrant

### References

* ↑ “email, n.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011; “email, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022..
* ↑ “email, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011; “email, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “† email, n.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2011.

### Further reading

* email on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* maile, Lamie, Melia, ameli

## Catalan
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English email.

### Noun

email m (plural emails)
* email
    Synonym: correu

## Chinese
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from English email.

#### Pronunciation

* Cantonese (Jyutping): ji$^1$ meu$^1$ / ji$^1$ me$^1$ lou$^4$ / ji$^1$ me$^1$ ou$^4$
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: ji$^1$ meu$^1$ / ji$^1$ me$^1$ lou$^4$ / ji$^1$ me$^1$ ou$^4$
*** Cantonese Pinyin: ji$^1$ meu$^1$ / ji$^1$ me$^1$ lou$^4$ / ji$^1$ me$^1$ ou$^4$
*** Sinological IPA : /jiː⁵⁵ mɛːu̯⁵⁵/, /jiː⁵⁵ mɛː⁵⁵ lou̯²¹/, /jiː⁵⁵ mɛː⁵⁵ ou̯²¹/
* This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some! Particularly: “is this used in Mandarin?”

#### Noun

email
* email (message) (Classifier: 封 c)

##### Synonyms

* 電郵／电邮 (diànyóu)

#### Verb

email
* to email (to send email to) (Classifier: 封 c)

##### Synonyms

* 電郵／电邮 (diànyóu)

### Etymology 2

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

#### Pronunciation

* Cantonese (Jyutping): ji$^1$ meu$^1$
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: ji$^1$ meu$^1$
*** Cantonese Pinyin: ji$^1$ meu$^1$
*** Sinological IPA : /jiː⁵⁵ mɛːu̯⁵⁵/

#### Noun

email
* (Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism, humorous or sarcastic) vaccine; inoculation

## Czech
### Alternative forms

* e-mail

### Noun

email m inan
* enamel
* (informal) email (electronic communication)

#### Usage notes

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

#### Declension
## Dutch
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French émail, from Old French esmal.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /eːˈmɑi̯/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: email

#### Noun

email n (uncountable)
* enamel
    Synonym: emaus
* (heraldry) tincture

##### Derived terms

* emailleren

##### Related terms

* emaus
* smalt
* smelten

### Etymology 2

From e-mail.

#### Noun

email m (plural emails, diminutive emailtje n)
* Nonstandard spelling of e-mail.

### Anagrams

* maile

## French
### Alternative forms

* e-mail, E-mail

### Etymology

Borrowed from English email.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /i.mɛl/, /i.mɛjl/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

email m (plural emails)
* (informal, anglicism) email
    Synonyms: courriel, courrier électronique, mail

### See also

* émail

### Anagrams

* maile, mailé, mêlai

## Hungarian
### Etymology

From French émail, from Old French esmal, from Frankish *smalt.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈɛmɒjil], [ˈɛmaːj], [ˈɛmaːjl]
* Hyphenation: email

### Noun

email (usually uncountable, plural emailok)
* enamel, glaze (an opaque, glassy coating baked onto metal or ceramic objects)
    Synonym: zománc
* enamel (the hard covering on the exposed part of a tooth)
    Synonym: fogzománc

#### Derived terms

* emailíroz
* emailos

### See also

* e-mail

### References

* ↑ 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

* 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 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 2024).

## Italian
### Noun

email m or f (invariable)
* email
    Synonym: e-mail

#### Derived terms

* emailare

### Anagrams

* amile, malie

## Romanian
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from French émail.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /eˈma.il/

#### Noun

email n (plural emailuri)
* enamel

##### Declension
### Etymology 2

Unadapted borrowing from English email.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /iˈmejl/

#### Noun

email n (plural emailuri)
* email

##### Declension
## Spanish
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈimeil/ [ˈi.mei̯l]
* Rhymes: -imeil

### Noun

email m (plural emails)
* email
* email address

#### Usage notes

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.