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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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, [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) 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”).

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. […]
  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

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

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
    • 2016 December 29, Paolo Lepri, “Obama Putin (e non solo) la scelta di un finale in attacco”, in Corriere della Sera‎[1], retrieved 2020-11-10:
      […] 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 – Vocabolario Treccani on line, 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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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, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • mail in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romansch

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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
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