English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
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
mail (countable and uncountable, plural mails)
- (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!
- 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
- A bag containing letters to be delivered by post.
- The material conveyed by the postal service. [from 17thc.]
- 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.
- 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
- There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
- (dated) A stagecoach, train or ship that delivers such post.
- The postal service or system in general. [from 17thc.]
- He decided to send his declaration by mail.
- (chiefly US, uncountable) The letters, parcels, etc. delivered to a particular address or person. [from 19thc.]
- (uncountable) Electronic mail, e-mail: a computer network–based service for sending, storing, and forwarding electronic messages. [from 20thc.]
- A trunk, box, or bag, in which clothing, etc., may be carried.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)
Usage notes
In the United States, mails (plural) can mean "the postal system".
Synonyms
- (postal system): post (UK, Ireland, other dialects?)
Derived terms
- accountable mail
- air mail
- carry the mail
- chain mail
- electronic mail
- fan mail
- hate mail
- junk mail
- mailbag
- mail boat
- mail bomb
- mailbox
- mail call
- mail car
- mail carrier
- mail clerk
- mail fraud
- mailman
- mailmerge
- mail order
- mail plane
- mail relay
- mailroom
- mails
- mail slot
- mail stop
- mail train
- mail truck
- snail mail
- surface mail
- voice mail
- vote-by-mail
- webmail
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.
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Verb
mail (third-person singular simple present mails, present participle mailing, simple past and past participle mailed)
- (ditransitive) To send (a letter, parcel, etc.) through the mail.
- (ditransitive) To send by electronic mail.
- Please mail me the spreadsheet by the end of the day.
- 1983, "Donn Seeley", Source for 'Grab' (on newsgroup net.unix-wizards)
- 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? (on newsgroup alt.music.manics)
- 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 (on newsgroup microsoft.public.excel.programming)
- 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.
- (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... (on newsgroup alt.comp.virus)
- 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
- (send through the mail): post
Derived terms
Translations
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Descendants
- Thai: เมล์ (mee)
Etymology 2
From Middle English maille (“mail armor”), borrowed from Old French maille (“loop, stich”), from Vulgar Latin *macla, from Latin macula (“blemish, mesh”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tleh₂, from *smeh₁- (“smear, rub”).
Alternative forms
Noun
mail (usually uncountable, plural mails)
- (uncountable) Armour consisting of metal rings or plates linked together.
- (nautical) A contrivance of interlinked rings, for rubbing off the loose hemp on lines and white cordage.
- Any hard protective covering of an animal, as the scales and plates of reptiles, shell of a lobster, etc.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Gay:
- We […] strip the lobster of his scarlet mail.
- J.R.R Tolkien:
- And metal wrought like fishes' mail.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Gay:
- (obsolete, rare) A spot on a bird's feather; by extension, a spotted feather.
- 1653, Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler:
- the moorish-fly; made with the body of duskish wool; and the wings made of the blackish mail of the drake
- 1653, Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler:
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
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Verb
mail (third-person singular simple present mails, present participle mailing, simple past and past participle mailed)
- (transitive) To arm with mail.
- (transitive) To pinion.
Etymology 3
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
Noun
mail (plural mails)
- (historical) An old French coin worth half a denier.
- (chiefly Scotland) A monetary payment or tribute.
- (chiefly Scotland) Rent.
- (chiefly Scotland) Tax.
Derived terms
Anagrams
Dalmatian
Etymology
Noun
mail m
Danish
Etymology
Noun
Declension
Dutch
Pronunciation
Verb
- (deprecated template usage) first-person singular present indicative of mailen
- (deprecated template usage) imperative of mailen
Fiji Hindi
Etymology
Borrowed from English mile (“imperial measure of distance”).
Pronunciation
Noun
References
French
Etymology 1
From Latin malleus (“hammer”).
Pronunciation
Noun
mail m (plural mails)
- maul
- (sports, historical) pall mall mallet
- (by extension) pall mall
- mall, promenade
- (Quebec) mall, shopping mall
Derived terms
Related terms
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
Noun
mail m (plural mails)
- (informal) email
Synonyms
Anagrams
Further reading
- “mail”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
German
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Verb
- (deprecated template usage) Imperative singular of mailen.
- (colloquial) (deprecated template usage) First-person singular present of mailen.
Italian
Etymology
Noun
mail f (uncountable)
Anagrams
Romansch
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Vulgar Latin *melum, from Latin mālum. Compare Friulian mêl, Romanian măr.
Noun
mail m (plural mails)
Synonyms
- (Puter) pom
Spanish
Pronunciation
Noun
mail m (plural mailes)
Synonyms
Tok Pisin
Etymology
Noun
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪl
- English terms with homophones
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- Regional English
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English dated terms
- American English
- Requests for quotations/Sir Walter Scott
- English verbs
- English ditransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- en:Nautical
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms with historical senses
- Scottish English
- en:Armor
- en:Post
- Dalmatian terms inherited from Latin
- Dalmatian terms derived from Latin
- Dalmatian lemmas
- Dalmatian nouns
- Dalmatian masculine nouns
- Danish terms borrowed from English
- Danish terms derived from English
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Dutch/eːl
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- Fiji Hindi terms borrowed from English
- Fiji Hindi terms derived from English
- Fiji Hindi terms with IPA pronunciation
- Fiji Hindi lemmas
- Fiji Hindi nouns
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Sports
- French terms with historical senses
- Quebec French
- French terms borrowed from English
- French terms derived from English
- German terms with audio links
- German non-lemma forms
- German verb forms
- German colloquialisms
- Italian terms borrowed from English
- Italian terms derived from English
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian uncountable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns
- Romansch terms inherited from Vulgar Latin
- Romansch terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- Romansch terms inherited from Latin
- Romansch terms derived from Latin
- Romansch lemmas
- Romansch nouns
- Romansch masculine nouns
- Rumantsch Grischun
- Vallader Romansch
- rm:Fruits
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- Tok Pisin terms derived from English
- Tok Pisin lemmas
- Tok Pisin nouns