mail

English has two main words spelled mail: the post, from Old French male “bag”, of Germanic origin, and the armour, from Old French maille, from Latin macula.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /meɪl/^[4]

mail¹ post

Etymology

The post is inherited from Middle English male (“travelling bag”),^[2][5] borrowed from Old French male (“wallet, bag, bundle”) (French malle “trunk”),^[6][2][3] from Frankish *malha or another Germanic source,^[6][2] from Proto-Germanic *malhō-, the source also of Old High German malaha “wallet, bag” and Middle Dutch māle “bag”,^[6][2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *molko- (“skin, bag”).^[6] Dutch maal “mailbag” is related.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A travelling bag: probably before 1200, in Layamon's Brut, according to Barnhart,^[2] and about 1200 in Etymonline, a sense now obsolete.^[6] In the United States and Scotland mails is still a word for baggage.^[1]

Semantic evolution

A bag of letters is from 1654 in Barnhart,^[2] perhaps through phrases such as a mail of letters, and the person or vehicle that carries the post from the 1650s.^[6] The letters and parcels themselves followed in the 1680s, and the public postal system in the 1690s.^[6] From “an item delivered” come newspaper titles such as the Daily Mail, a use dating from 1789.^[1][6] In 19th-century England mail was letters going abroad, while home dispatches were post,^[6] and British usage still favours post.^[1] A personal batch of letters is first American, from 1844.^[6] The verb, to send by mail, is American English from 1828;^[6][2] the OED notes that the usual word in Britain is still post.^[6] Mail order is from 1867, mailman from 1881, and mailing list from 1876.^[2][6] Electronic mail and email followed in the late 20th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a travelling bag.^[2][6]
• 1654 – a bag of letters.^[2]
• 1680s – letters and parcels.^[6]
• 1690s – the postal system.^[6]
• 1789 – as a newspaper name.^[6]
• 1828 – verb, American English.^[6]
• 1867 – mail order.^[2]
• 1881 – mailman.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Letters and parcels sent by post.
2. The letters delivered to a particular person or place.
3. The postal system.
4. Messages sent by email.

Verb

1. To send by post or email.

Word family

• mailbox
• mailman
• mailbag
• mail order
• mailer
• mailing list
• email

mail² armour

Etymology

The armour is inherited from Middle English maile (“link of mail”),^[2][5] borrowed from Old French maille (“link of mail, mesh of a net”),^[6][2][3] from Latin macula (“mesh of a net; originally a spot, blemish”),^[6][2][3] from the notion that the gaps in a net looked like spots;^[6] the Latin word is of uncertain origin.^[2] It is related to macula, immaculate and mesh.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Armour of metal rings: probably before 1300 in Barnhart, as maile “mail, link of mail”,^[2] about 1300 in Etymonline,^[6] and about 1320 in the OED, of one of the rings or plates.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Armour made of interlaced rings as a whole is from about 1374.^[8][3] Its use goes back to late Roman times, and it was the favourite armour of Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries, effective but heavy and costly.^[6] The breast feathers of a hawk were called mail from the 15th century,^[3] and the protective shell or scales of animals from 1714.^[8] The figurative sense is from 1813.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a link of mail.^[2][6]
• c. 1374 – mail armour.^[8]
• 15th century – a hawk's breast feathers.^[3]
• 1714 – a protective shell.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Flexible armour made of small metal rings linked together or of overlapping plates.
2. A protective covering such as the shell of a tortoise.

Verb

1. To cover with mail.

Word family

• chain mail
• mailed

Related words

• blackmail
• macula
• immaculate
• post

Usage notes

A third, Scottish mail, “payment, rent, tribute”, from late Old English māl, from Old Norse mál “speech, agreement”, survives in blackmail.^[6][3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press