The DICT Development Group

  E-mail \E-mail\, email \email\, e-mail \e-mail\([=e]"m[^a]l`),
     n.
     electronic mail; a digitally encoded message sent from one
     computer to another through an electronic communications
     medium, especially by means of a computer network.
  
     Syn: electronic mail.
          [PJC] email
          E-mail

  E-mail \E-mail\, email \email\, e-mail \e-mail\v. t. [imp. & p.
     p. E-mailed; p. pr. & vb. n. E-mailing.]
     to send (an e-mail message) to someone; as, I emailed the
     article to the editor; she emailed me her report.
  
     Syn: mail electronically.
          [WordNet 1.5]

  e-mail
      n 1: (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" [syn: electronic
           mail, e-mail, email] [ant: snail mail]
      v 1: communicate electronically on the computer; "she e-mailed
           me the good news" [syn: e-mail, email, netmail]

  electronic mail
  e-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://pretext.com/mar98/features/story2.htm)">(http://pretext.com/mar98/features/story2.htm).
  
     How data travels around the world
     http://www.akita.co.uk/movement-of-data)">(http://www.akita.co.uk/movement-of-data)
  
     (2014-10-07)