Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: E-mail |
Noun1. (computer science) a system of world-wide electronic communication in which a computer user can compose a message at one terminal that is generated at the recipient's terminal when he logs in. Verb1. Communicate electronically on the computer; "she e-mailed me the good news". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | 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. Source: Jargon File. |
Public Administration | Computerized transmission of messages which allows direct transmission, or storing in order to delay transmittal and reception at a convenient time, or retaining the message on computerized files. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
E-mail, or email, is short for "electronic mail" (as opposed to conventional mail, in this context also called snail mail) and refers to composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. Most e-mail systems today use the Internet, and e-mail is one of the most popular uses of the Internet.
E-mail before the Internet
Despite common belief, e-mail actually pre-dates the Internet; in fact, existing e-mail systems were a crucial tool in creating the Internet.
E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate; although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32 and MIT's CTSS.
E-mail was quickly extended to become network e-mail, allowing users to pass messages between different computers. The early history of network e-mail is also murky; the AUTODIN system may have been the first allowing electronic text messages to be transferred between users on different computers, in 1966, but it is possible the SAGE system had something similar some time before.
The ARPANET computer network significantly increased the popularity of e-mail. There is one report [1] which indicates experimental inter-system e-mail transfers on it shortly after its creation, in 1969. The use of the "@" sign to separate the names of the user and their machine, was initiated by Ray Tomlinson in 1972; the common report that he "invented" email is an exaggeration, although his early e-mail programs SNDMSG and READMAIL were very important.
Since not all computers or networks were directly inter-networked, e-mail was forwarded between sites using protocols such as UUCP, and e-mail addresses had to include the "route" of the message, that is, a path between the computer of the sender and the computer of the receivers. E-mail could be passed this way between a number of networks, including the ARPANET, BITNET and NSFNET, as well as to hosts connected directly to other sites via UUCP.
The route was specified using so-call "bang path" addresses, specifying hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee, so called because each hop is signified by a "bang sign", i.e. Exclamation mark. Thus, for example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me directs people to route their mail to machine bigsite (presumably a well-known location accessible to everybody) and from there through the machine foovax to the account of user me on barbox.
Before auto-routing mailers became commonplace, people often published compound bang addresses using the { } convention (see glob) to give paths from several big machines, in the hopes that one's correspondent might be able to get mail to one of them reliably (example: ...!{seismo, ut-sally, ihnp4}!rice!beta!gamma!me). Bang paths of 8 to 10 hops were not uncommon in 1981. Late-night dial-up UUCP links would cause week-long transmission times. Bang paths were often selected by both transmission time and reliability, as messages would often get lost. See the network and sitename.
Modern internet e-mail
Nowadays, almost all e-mail is delivered directly to Internet-connected hosts, using DNS MX records and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Very few modern servers allow routing (automatic or manual) any more due the potential for abuse by people sending unsolicited bulk email. Those that do allow it are called open relayss.
A modern Internet e-mail address is a string of the form jsmith@corporation.com. It should be read as "jsmith at corporation.com". The first part is the username of the person, and the second part is the hostname of the computer in which that person has an e-mail account.
The format of internet e-mail messages is defined in RFC 2822. Prior to the introduction of RFC 2822 the format was described by RFC 822.
Internet e-mail messages typically consist of two major components:
The headers usually have at least four fields:
- Headers - Message summary, sender, receiver, and other information about the e-mail
- Body - The message itself, usually containing a signature block at the end
Note however that the "To" field does not necessarily have the email address of the recipient. The information supplied in the headers on the recipients computer is similar to that found on top of a conventional letter. The actual information such as who the message was addressed to is removed by the mail server after it assigns it to the correct user's mailbox.
- From - The e-mail address of the sender of the message
- To - The e-mail address of the receiver of the message
- Subject - A brief summary of the contents of the message
- Date - The local time and date when the message was originally sent
Other common fields include:
- Cc - Carbon copy (because typewriters used carbon film to copy what was written on them)
- Bcc - Blind carbon copy (the recipient of this copy will know who was in the To: field, but the recipients cannot see who is on the Bcc: list)
- Received - Tracking information generated by mail servers that have previously handled a message
- Content-Type - Information about how the message has to be displayed, usually a MIME type
Messages and mailboxes
Messages are exchanged between hosts using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol with software like Sendmail. Users download their messages from servers usually with either the POP or IMAP protocols, yet in a large corporate environment users are likely to use some proprietary protocol such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange Server's.
Mails can be stored either on the client or on the server side. Standard formats for mailboxes include Maildir and mbox. Several prominent e-mail clients use their own, proprietary format, and require conversion software to transfer email between them.
E-mail content encoding
E-mail is only defined to carry 7-bit ASCII messages. Although many e-mail transports are in fact "8-bit clean", this cannot be guaranteed. For this reason, e-mail has been extended by the MIME standard to allow the encoding of binary attachments including images, sounds and HTML attachments.
Spamming and e-mail worms
The usefulness of e-mail is being threatened by two phenomena, spamming and e-mail worms.
Spamming is unsolicited commercial e-mail. Because of the very low cost of sending e-mail, spammers can send hundreds of millions of e-mail messages each day over an inexpensive Internet connection. Hundreds of active spammers sending this volume of mail results in many computer users receiving tens or even hundreds of junk e-mails each day.
E-mail worms use e-mail as a way of replicating themselves into vulnerable computers. Although the first e-mail worm (the Morris worm) affected early UNIX computers, this problem is today almost entirely confined to the Microsoft Windows oprerating system.
The combination of spam and worm programs results in users receiving a constant drizzle of junk e-mail, which reduces the usefulness of E-mail as a practical tool.
A number of initiatives are under way to mitigate these problems: see the article stopping E-mail abuse.
Further Reading
See also:
- Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon, Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet (Simon and Schuster, 1996) also covers the early history of e-mail
- E-mail art
- E-mail social issues:
- netiquette
- Internet humor
- Internet slang
- spam
- virus.
- email client
- electronic mailing list
- mailing list archive
- webmail
- mail transfer agent
- e-mail address
- Hotmail.com
- computing
- branded email
External links
This article, or an earlier version, contains content derived from FOLDOC, used by permission.
- The History of Electronic Mail is a personal memoir by the implementer of one of the first e-mail systems
- Michael A. Padlipsky, And They Argued All Night... is an alternative personal recollection of the origins of network e-mail
- The First E-Mail Message is an article about the history of network e-mail; contains some errors
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "E-mail."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| English | Environmental management architecture for information delivery | N/A | |
| E-MAIL, e-mail | English | Electronic mail | Telecom |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I don't even have E-mail. (The Sum of All Fears; writing credit: Paul Attanasio) E-mail is for geeks and pedophiles (Cruel Intentions; writing credit: Roger Kumble. Based on the novel 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Choderlos de Laclos.) Oh, I must give you my e-mail address (Family Guy; writing credit: Dolores Payás) You think I'm going to e-mail him (You've Got Mail; writing credit: Nora Ephron) I encoded a message in a junk e-mail. You should've been able to pick it up from the subject line (Alias; writing credit: Robert Soulé; Henri de Turenne) | |
Clever | You are an engineer if the only jokes you receive are through e-mail. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Vier Küsse und eine E-Mail (2003) E-mail Express (2003) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Duotone Guitar" by Matt Williams Commentary: "A close up of my mate's guitar. If you use it send me an e-mail." | "Window_1" by Simon Cataudo Commentary: "Star of David stained-glass window. I have more of these - e-mail me! Taken 11 December 2003." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Its E-mail address is idf@clark. (references) | |
To obtain a contents list, send e-mail to cancermail@cips. (references) | ||
Marfan Association UK can be reached at its e-mail address at marfanatthenet. (references) | ||
Business | Viewers can send E-mail directly to the U.S. company or its Japanese agent. (references) | |
Since the appearance of the e-mail viruses, virus alertness is more intensive in Hungary. (references) | ||
The roll out is reportedly slated to take place in three phases; e-mail, chat and advanced services. (references) | ||
Children | Switzerland | Individuals who find pornographic material involving children are asked to contact the Federal Office via e-mail. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Burma | Only one, government-owned e-mail service was available at year's end. (references) |
Syria | The Government also periodically blocks access to servers that provide free e-mail services. (references) | |
Economic History | Bangladesh | Some fax/phone retailers also offer e-mail services. (references) |
Eritrea | E-mail service and (slow) Internet access is available in Eritrea. (references) | |
Norway | Norway's 4.4 million inhabitants receive twenty-five million e-mail messages every day. (references) | |
Human Rights | Syria | One of the recipients of the e-mail had forwarded it to the authorities. (references) |
Laos | Security laws allow the Government to monitor individuals' private communications (including e-mail) and movements. (references) | |
Vietnam | He rarely receives visitors, and police have shut off his phone and fax (since May 2000), and his Internet, and e-mail (since June 1999). Some persons are held under conditions resembling house arrest without known legal pretext. (references) | |
Political Economy | PAKISTAN | Under the WTO Agreement on Basic Telecommunications Services, Pakistan made commitments to provide market access and national treatment for all local, domestic long distance and international basic voice telecommunications services and private leased circuit services as of January 1, 2004. E-mail, Internet, electronic information services, data communication network services, trunk radio services, cellular mobile telephone services, audiotex, voice mail and card-pay services, close user group for banking operations, international satellite operators for domestic data communication, paging services, vehicle tracking system and global mobile personal communication systems are now open for 100 percent foreign ownership at the onset of the investment, which has to be reduced to 60 percent within five years. (references) |
Travel | Ireland | Prompt acknowledgement of correspondence by fax, e-mail, or air mail is recommended. (references) |
Jordan | Most major hotels have business service offices with fax machines, internet and e-mail. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Heather Mills McCartney | If you go onto my Web site or e-mail Heather@heathermills.org we can give you all the information where you can get this prosthesis. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "E-mail" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 44.33% of the time. "E-mail" is used about 97 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 44.33% | 43 | 52,181 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 44.33% | 43 | 52,181 |
| Noun (proper) | 11.34% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Total | 100.00% | 97 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "e-mail"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Bemba | imelu yapa kompyuta. (various references) | |
Cebuano | e-mail. (various references) | |
Faeroese | e-post. (various references) | |
Finnish | s-posti (electronic mail), sähköposti (electronic mail, Email). (various references) | |
French | mél, courrier électronique, courriel. (various references) | |
Frisian | eamel. (various references) | |
German | elektronische Post (electronic mail). (various references) | |
Greek | ηλεκτρονικό ταχυδρομείο (electronic mail, Email). (various references) | |
Inuktitut | entuna. (various references) | |
Italian | posta elettronica (ECOM, electronic computer originated mail, electronic mail, Email, teleimpression). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 電子メール (electronic mail), 電子メイル (electronic mail). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | でんしメール (electronic mail), でんしめいる (electronic mail). (various references) | |
Macedonian | i-meil. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | e-mailay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | correio eletrônico (electronic mail), correio electrónico (electronic mail). (various references) | |
Provencal | corrièr electronic. (various references) | |
Russian | электронная почта (email). (various references) | |
Samoan | i-meli. (various references) | |
Spanish | correo electrónico (electronic mail). (various references) | |
Swedish | e-post (email). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | електронна пошта. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: email, maile. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-i-l-m" | |
-1 letter: alme, amie, ilea, lame, lima, lime, mail, male, meal, mile. | |
-2 letters: ail, aim, ale, ami, elm, lam, lea, lei, lie, mae, mel, mil. | |
-3 letters: ae, ai, al, am, el, em, la, li, ma, me, mi. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-i-l-m" | |
+1 letter: emails, hiemal, impale, lambie, lamiae, mailed, mailer, mailes, malice, maline, mallei, mealie, medial, menial, mesial, milage, remail, samiel. | |
+2 letters: ailment, aimless, alembic, aliment, alumine, amiable, armlike, balmier, beamily, bimetal, camelia, cembali, claimed, claimer, climate, decimal, declaim, dilemma, emailed, exclaim, flamier, geminal, gremial, hemiola, imblaze, impaled, impaler, impales, impanel, impearl, implead, inflame, lambier, lambies, laminae, lehayim, lempira, limbate, limeade, lineman, loamier, mailers, mailmen, malaise, malefic, malices, malines, malmier, maltier, manille, maniple, manlier, manlike, maplike, marlier, marline, marlite, mealier, mealies, meatily, medials, medical, melanic, melanin, melisma, melodia, menials, metical, miauled, micella, milages, mileage, millage, minable, mineral, miracle, misdeal, mislead, mixable, mycelia, palmier, ramilie, realism, reclaim, remails, samiels, seismal, seminal, timbale. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Usage Frequency 11. Translations: Modern 12. Abbreviations | 13. Acronyms 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
