CS Knowledge Base

• Rhymes: -eɪl
• (pane–pain merger) Homophone: male
• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /meɪl/

  • Audio (US); [meːɫ]:

    (file)

• (North India) IPA^(key): /mel/
• (South India) IPA^(key): /mɛj(ɪ)l/

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.

mail (countable and uncountable, plural mails)

1. (now regional) A bag or wallet. [from 13^thc.]
   • 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 (date written), [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 17^thc.]

   Synonym: snail mail

   Antonyms: email, mail

   Meronym: mailpiece

   Don't forget to pick up the mail on your way.

   • 1823, The stranger in Liverpool; or, An historical and descriptive view of the town of Liverpool and its environs, Seventh Edition, T. Kaye, page 96,

     The following are the hours at which the letter-box of this office is closed for making up the several mails, and the hours at which each mail is despatched: ¶ […]

   • 1887, John Houston Merrill (editor), The American and English Encyclopædia of Law, Volume I, Edward Thompson, p.121,

     If he retains the account, and permits several mails to pass without objecting to it, he will be held to have admitted its correctness.

   • 1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, page 202:

     The transfer by tender of some 1,300 mail bags was effected smartly, and the "Ocean Mails Special" train was ready at 9.19 a.m.

   1. (chiefly US, uncountable) The letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person. [from 19^thc.]

      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 17^thc.]

   Synonym: (UK, Ireland, India, Australia, New Zealand) 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 20^thc.]

   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.
    • 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

      “Fetch me the little private mail with the padlocks, that I recommended to your particular charge — d'ye hear?”

In the United States, the mails (with the and in the plural) can mean "the postal system".

• → Japanese: メール
• → Samoan: meli

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.

• (send through the mail): post

• → Thai: เมล์ (mee)

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”). Compare maillot.

• maille

mail (usually uncountable, plural mails)

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. […]

   • 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 23:

     Under the sea-girt cliffs the shining ship was readied, laden with coats of mail, swords, and gleaming war harness.

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.
   • 1716, John Gay, Epistle to the Earl of Burlington:

     We […] strip the lobster of his scarlet mail.

   • 1954 July 29, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A Journey in the Dark”, in The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published September 1973, →ISBN, page 412:

     There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, / And metal wrought like fishes' mail, / Buckler and corslet, axe and sword, / And shining spears were laid in hoard.

6. (obsolete, rare) A spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.
   • 1676, Izaak Walton, “[The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation: Part I […].] Fovrth Day.”, in Richard Le Gallienne, editor, The Compleat Angler, 5th edition, London; New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, published 1897, →OCLC, page 116:

     [T]he moorish-fly: made with the body of duskish wool; and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake.

• 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.

• mailed

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.

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.

• maile, maill, maille

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.

• Alim, Liam, Lima, Mali, Mila, alim, lima, mali

From Latin milium.

mail m

1. millet
2. birdseed

Borrowed from English email.

mail

1. email

• IPA^(key): /meːl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːl
• Homophone: meel

Shortened from e-mail.

mail m (plural mails, diminutive mailtje n)

1. (nonstandard) alternative form of e-mail

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mail

1. inflection of mailen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈmajl/

mail f pl

1. plural of maila

mail

1. adessive plural of maa

Borrowed from English mile (“imperial measure of distance”).

• IPA^(key): /maɪl/

mail

1. mile

• Fiji Hindi Dictionary

Inherited from Latin malleus (“hammer”).

• IPA^(key): /maj/

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

• maillet

• malléable

Borrowed from English email.

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/, /mɛjl/

mail m (plural mails)

1. (informal) email

   Synonyms: courriel, mél

• “mail”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• lima

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

mail

1. singular imperative of mailen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of mailen

mail

1. romanization of 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌻

Clipping of e-mail.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛjl/, /ˈmejl/^[1]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛjl, -ejl

mail f (invariable)

1. (colloquial) email

   Synonym: posta elettronica

   • 2016 December 29, Paolo Lepri, “Obama Putin (e non solo) la scelta di un finale in attacco”, in Corriere della Sera‎^[1], retrieved 10 November 2020:

     […] 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)

• mail spazzatura (“spam mail”)

• mail in Treccani.it – Sinonimi e Contrari (2003), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• Mali, almi, lima, mali, mila

mail

1. alternative form of mayle

Unadapted borrowing from English mail.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛjl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛjl
• Syllabification: mail
• Homophone: mejl

mail m inan

1. alternative spelling of mejl

• “mail”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[2] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “mail”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[3] (in Polish)

• meil (Sursilvan, Surmiran)
• mel (Sutsilvan)

From Late Latin mēlum, from Latin mālum. Compare Friulian mêl, Romanian măr.

mail m (plural mails)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader) apple

• (Puter) pom

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeil/ [ˈmei̯l]
• Rhymes: -eil

mail m (plural mailes)

1. email

   Synonyms: correo, correo electrónico, email

mail n

1. alternative spelling of mejl

• Liam, Lima, Mali, mila

From English mile.

mail

1. mile