electronic mail : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: electronic mail	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for electronic mail
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
electronic mail n (computer science) a system of world-wide electronic communication in which a computer user can compose a message at one terminal that can be regenerated at the recipient's terminal when the recipient logs in; "you cannot send packages by electronic mail" Synonym(s): electronic mail, e-mail, email Antonym(s): snail mail
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
electronic mail (e-mail) Messages automatically passed from one computer user to another, often through computer {networks} and/or via {modems} over telephone lines. A message, especially one following the common {RFC 822} {standard}, begins with several lines of {headers}, followed by a blank line, and the body of the message. Most e-mail systems now support the {MIME} {standard} which allows the message body to contain "{attachments}" of different kinds rather than just one block of plain {ASCII} text. It is conventional for the body to end with a {signature}. Headers give the name and {electronic mail address} of the sender and recipient(s), the time and date when it was sent and a subject. There are many other headers which may get added by different {message handling systems} during delivery. The message is "composed" by the sender, usually using a special program - a "{Mail User Agent}" (MUA). It is then passed to some kind of "{Message Transfer Agent}" (MTA) - a program which is responsible for either delivering the message locally or passing it to another MTA, often on another {host}. MTAs on different hosts on a network often communicate using {SMTP}. The message is eventually delivered to the recipient's {mailbox} - normally a file on his computer - from where he can read it using a mail reading program (which may or may not be the same {MUA} as used by the sender). Contrast {snail-mail}, {paper-net}, {voice-net}. The form "email" is also common, but is less suggestive of the correct pronunciation and derivation than "e-mail". The word is used as a noun for the concept ("Isn't e-mail great?", "Are you on e-mail?"), a collection of (unread) messages ("I spent all night reading my e-mail"), and as a verb meaning "to send (something in) an e-mail message" ("I'll e-mail you (my report)"). The use of "an e-mail" as a count noun for an e-mail message, and plural "e-mails", is now (2000) also well established despite the fact that "mail" is definitely a mass noun. Oddly enough, the word "emailed" is actually listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. It means "embossed (with a raised pattern) or arranged in a net work". A use from 1480 is given. The word is derived from French "emmailleure", network. Also, "email" is German for enamel. {The story of the first e-mail message (http://www.pretext.com/mar98/features/story2.htm)}. (2002-07-14)