electronic mail

messaging (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. An increasing

number of e-mail systems 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, usuallya 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 meaining "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.

(2002-07-14)