Etymologically
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mailbox

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 23:18. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmeɪl.bɑks/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English mail + box,[2][3][4] from mail in the sense of the post.[2][3] The noun mail comes from Old French male (“wallet, bag, bundle”), and box from Late Latin buxis.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A box for the mailbags on a coach: 1797, in Etymonline;[3] the OED's first record of this sense is from 1810.[2]

Semantic evolution

The first mailboxes were boxes for carrying the mail on a mail coach or steamer, a sense obsolete by the 1870s;[2][3] Scott also used the word in 1819 for a writing box.[2] In American English it came to mean a box placed in a public place for posting letters, recorded by 1853 in Etymonline and in 1871 in the OED,[3][2] and then a box for the delivery of letters, especially one mounted on a post at the entrance to a property (1885).[2] In computing it was used from 1965 for an area of memory shared by a processor and a peripheral, and since 1971 for the store in which a user's electronic mail is received.[2]

Timeline

  • 1797 – a box for the mailbags on a coach.[3] The OED's first record is from 1810.[2]
  • 1819 – a writing box (rare, obsolete).[2]
  • 1853 – in American English, a public box for posting letters.[3] The OED's first record is from 1871, and Merriam-Webster dates it to 1868.[2][5]
  • 1885 – a box for delivered letters, especially one on a post at the entrance to a property.[2]
  • 1965 – in computing, a shared area of memory.[2]
  • 1971 – a storage area for a user's electronic mail.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A public box into which letters are put for collection; a postbox.[6][5][7][2]
  2. A private box for delivered mail, especially one on a post at the entrance to a property: She found a parcel in the mailbox.[6][5][7][2]
  3. A computer file or storage area in which a user's email is received and kept.[6][5][7][2]
  4. (computing) An area of memory shared by a processor and a peripheral for passing data.[2]
  • post office box
  • postbox
  • letterbox
  • mail
  • box

Usage notes

The OED and the Concise Oxford label the postal senses North American;[2][7] the American Heritage Dictionary gives postbox and letterbox as other names for them.[6]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press