Wiktionary

mail

See also: Mail and màil

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *malhō
Frankish *malhabor.
Medieval Latin malader.
Anglo-Norman malebor.
▲
Old French malebor.
Middle English male
English mail

    From Middle English male, from Anglo-Norman male, Old French male (“bag, wallet”), from Frankish *malha (“bag”), from Proto-Germanic *malhō (“bag, pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *molko- (“leather pouch”). Compare Dutch maal.

    Noun

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    mail (countable and uncountable, plural mails)

    1. (now regional) A bag or wallet. [from 13thc.]
      • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
        What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale; / A brydelynge caste for that is in thy male!
      • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
        Open the Males, yet guard the treaſure ſure.
        Lay out our golden wedges to the view,
        That their reflexions may amaze the Perſeans.
    2. A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.
    4. The (physical) material conveyed by the postal service. [from 17thc.]
      Synonym: snail mail
      Antonyms: email, mail
      Meronym: mailpiece
      Don't forget to pick up the mail on your way.
      1. (chiefly US, uncountable) The letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person. [from 19thc.]
        It should be in your mail today, unless the post office lost it!
    5. (dated) A stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.
      • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 263:
        All trains stop at all stations, with the exception of a few "local" stations near Mombasa and an odd flag stop or two usually missed by the mails.
      • 1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, pages 422, 425:
        On the morning after the one-day strike, October 4, one of the Type 4s on crew-training, No. D169, was appropriated to head the 3 a.m. mail to Hull, as no steam locomotive had been lit up and the usual Hull Type 3 was not available; [...].
      • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:
        As he passed though the station, he slowed to yell to the signalman, Frank 'Sailor' Bridges: "Sailor - have you anything between here and Fordham? Where's the mail?" Gimbert knew the mail train was due, and he didn't want to endanger another train with his burning bomb wagon.
    7. The postal service or system in general. [from 17thc.]
      Synonym: (UK, Ireland, India, Australia, New Zealand) post
      He decided to send his declaration by mail.
    9. (uncountable) Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages. [from 20thc.]
      Synonym: email
      Yahoo Mail has been providing mail service since 1997.
    11. (uncountable) Email messages conceived in bulk (as with the analogous sense of physical mail).
      Synonym: email
      You've got mail [old audio clip announcing new email in the 1990s-2000s]
    13. (countable, especially India) An email message.
      Synonym: email
      Please look through those mails and confirm whether you received the one about scheduling.
    14. A trunk, box, or bag, in which clothing, etc., may be carried.
    Usage notes
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    In the United States, the mails (with the and in the plural) can mean "the postal system".

    Derived terms
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    Descendants
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    • → Japanese: メール
    Translations
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    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Verb

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    mail (third-person singular simple present mails, present participle mailing, simple past and past participle mailed)

    2. (ditransitive) To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.
    3. (ditransitive) To send by electronic mail.
      Please mail me the spreadsheet by the end of the day.
      • 1983, Donn Seeley, “Source for 'Grab'”, in net.unix-wizards (Usenet):
        There has been a crackdown on non-ARPA use of a local ARPA gateway, so I am reluctant to attempt to mail the file to ARPA sites.
      • 1998, Michael Tomsett, “Re: Multiple postings?”, in alt.music.manics (Usenet):
        Since .mp3's are so big (well for me with a 33.6kp/s connection they are anyway) maybe you should offer on your site to mail the file to people who want it, and have them request it, thus saving your web space, your upload time and their download time […]
      • 2003, Chrissy, “Re: Send mail with attachment”, in microsoft.public.excel.programming (Usenet):
        If you mail an attachment from one mail client then it does not matter if the receiver uses a different mail client. The mail you send should be able to be read from their mail client.
    4. (transitive) To contact (a person) by electronic mail.
      I need to mail my tutor about the deadline.
      • 2000, Carlton Alton Deltree, “Whoever did this sucks...”, in alt.comp.virus (Usenet):
        I was horrified but my data was OK. Then, it saw it open my e-mail package and start to mail my friends. I turned the power off.
      • 2002, Jessica Mann, The voice from the grave, page 189:
        'Yes, at Quantico. She was so excited by it, she sent all those emails, you remember I told you about it -' 'Yes, she mailed me from there too.'
      • 2011, Rose Budworth-Levine, Intimate Encounters, page 41:
        He mailed me and said he had managed to hack into my email accounts.
    Synonyms
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    • (send through the mail): post
    Derived terms
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    Descendants
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    Translations
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    to send via the post

    Etymology 2

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    From Middle English mayle (“mail armor”), borrowed from Old French maille (“loop, stitch”), from Vulgar Latin *macla, from Latin macula (“blemish, mesh”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tleh₂, from *smeh₁- (“smear, rub”). Compare maillot.

    Alternative forms

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    Noun

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    mail (usually uncountable, plural mails)

     
    Mail.
    2. (uncountable, history) Armour consisting of metal rings linked together.
      • 1853, John Ruskin, “Roman Renaissance”, in The Stones of Venice, volume III (The Fall), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § LVII, page 73:
        The knight is laid in his mail, only the hands and face being bare.
      • 1956, C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle:
        "That's funny looking mail, Sire," said Eustace.
        "Aye, lad," said Tirian. "No Narnian dwarf smithied that. […]
      • 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 23:
        Under the sea-girt cliffs the shining ship was readied, laden with coats of mail, swords, and gleaming war harness.
    3. (uncountable, by extension, now fiction, fantasy) Armour consisting of small plates linked together.
    4. (nautical) A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.
    5. Any hard protective covering of an animal, as the scales and plates of reptiles, shell of a lobster, etc.
    6. (obsolete, rare) A spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.
    Usage notes
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    • Mail for a type of armour is in specialist academic usage now restricted to armour made up of interlocking rings, where its use for scale armour, lamellar armour or brigandine is considered antiquarian.
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    Verb

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    mail (third-person singular simple present mails, present participle mailing, simple past and past participle mailed)

    1. (transitive) To arm with mail.
    2. (transitive) To pinion.

    Etymology 3

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    From Middle English mal, male from Old English māl (“speech, contract, agreement”) from Old Norse mál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”). Akin to Old English mǣl (“speech”). Related to Old English mǣlan (mell), maþelian (“to speak out, declare”). From *maþlą (“meeting-place”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to encounter, come”), if so, related to meet, and moot.

    Alternative forms

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    Noun

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    mail (plural mails)

    1. (historical) An old French coin worth half a denier.
    2. (chiefly Scotland) A monetary payment or tribute.
    3. (chiefly Scotland) Rent.
    4. (chiefly Scotland) Tax.
    Derived terms
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    Anagrams

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    Dalmatian

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    Etymology

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    From Latin milium.

    Noun

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    mail m

    1. millet
    2. birdseed

    Danish

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from English email.

    Noun

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    mail

    1. email

    Declension

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    Declension of mail
    common
    gender     		singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative mail mailen mails mailsene
    genitive mails mailens mails' mailsenes

    Dutch

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    Pronunciation

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    Etymology 1

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    Shortened from e-mail.

    Noun

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    mail m (plural mails, diminutive mailtje n)

    1. (nonstandard) alternative form of e-mail
    Derived terms
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    Etymology 2

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    See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

    Verb

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    mail

    1. inflection of mailen:
      1. first-person singular present indicative
      2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
      3. imperative

    Emilian

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    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    mail f pl

    1. plural of maila

    Estonian

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    Noun

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    mail

    1. adessive plural of maa

    Fiji Hindi

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from English mile (“imperial measure of distance”).

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    mail

    1. mile

    References

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    French

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    Etymology 1

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      Inherited from Latin malleus (“hammer”).

      Pronunciation

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      Noun

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      mail m (plural mails)

      1. maul
      2. (sports, historical) pall mall mallet
      3. (by extension) pall mall
      4. mall, promenade
      5. (Quebec) mall, shopping mall
      Derived terms
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      Etymology 2

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        Borrowed from English email.

        Pronunciation

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        Noun

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        mail m (plural mails)

        1. (informal) email
          Synonyms: courriel, mél

        Further reading

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        Anagrams

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        German

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        Pronunciation

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        Verb

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        mail

        1. singular imperative of mailen
        2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of mailen

        Gothic

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        Romanization

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        mail

        1. romanization of 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌻

        Italian

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        Etymology

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        Clipping of e-mail.

        Pronunciation

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        Noun

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        mail f (invariable)

        1. (colloquial) email
          Synonym: posta elettronica
          • 2016 December 29, Paolo Lepri, “Obama Putin (e non solo) la scelta di un finale in attacco”, in Corriere della Sera‎[1], retrieved 10 November 2020:
            […] una democrazia che Trump (ricordiamoci le accuse di «falsificazione» delle elezioni, la strumentalizzazione della vicenda delle mail di Hillary, l’uso senza scrupoli della «post-verità») deve assolutamente imparare a rispettare pienamente.
            (please add an English translation of this quotation)

        Derived terms

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        References

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        1. ^ e-mail, mailing in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

        Further reading

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        • mail in Treccani.it – Sinonimi e Contrari (2003), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

        Anagrams

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        Middle English

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        Noun

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        mail

        1. alternative form of mayle

        Polish

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        Etymology

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        Etymology tree
        Proto-Germanic *malhō
        Frankish *malhabor.
        Medieval Latin malader.
        Anglo-Norman malebor.
        ▲
        Old French malebor.
        Middle English male
        English mailubor.
        Polish mail

          Unadapted borrowing from English mail.

          Pronunciation

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          Noun

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          mail m inan

          1. alternative spelling of mejl

          Declension

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          Declension of mail
          singular plural
          nominative mail maile
          genitive maila maili/mailów
          dative mailowi mailom
          accusative mail maile
          instrumental mailem mailami
          locative mailu mailach
          vocative mailu maile

          Derived terms

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          adjective
          verb
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          adverb
          noun

          Further reading

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          • “mail”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎[2] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
          • “mail”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎[3] (in Polish)

          Romansh

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          Alternative forms

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          Etymology

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          From Late Latin mēlum, from Latin mālum. Compare Friulian mêl, Romanian măr.

          Noun

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          mail m (plural mails)

          1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader) apple

          Synonyms

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          Spanish

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          Pronunciation

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          Noun

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          mail m (plural mailes)

          1. email
            Synonyms: correo, correo electrónico, email

          Swedish

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          Noun

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          mail n

          1. alternative spelling of mejl

          Declension

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          Declension of mail
          nominative genitive
          singular indefinite mail mails
          definite mailet mailets
          plural indefinite mail mails
          definite mailen mailens

          Anagrams

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          Tok Pisin

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          Etymology

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          From English mile.

          Noun

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          mail

          1. mile
          Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=mail&oldid=90756395"