email

Etymology 1

The noun is an abbreviation of electronic mail. The verb is derived from the noun, by analogy with mail (“to send through the mail”).

noun

1. (uncountable) A system for transferring messages from one computer to another, usually through a network.
   He sent me his details via email.
   The advent of email has simultaneously brought our society closer together and farther apart.
2. (uncountable) A quantity of messages sent through an email system.
   I am searching through my old email.
   My inbox used to allow only 50 MB of email at a time until last year, when they upgraded it to 2 GBs!
3. (countable) A message sent through an email system.
   He sent me an email last week to remind me about the meeting.
   I archive my old emails using a cloud-based service.
4. (countable, informal) An email address.
   What’s your email?
   Don’t send personal messages to my work email.

verb

1. (transitive) To send an email or emails to.
   She emailed me last week, asking about the status of the project.
2. (transitive, ditransitive) To send (something) through email.
   I’ll email you the link.
   He emailed the file out to everyone.
3. (intransitive) To send, or compose and send, an email or emails.
   Most teenagers seem to spend almost the whole day emailing and surfing the Web.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle French email, from Old French esmal (“enamel”) (modern French émail (“enamel; vitreous enamel; glaze (coating on pottery)”)), from Medieval Latin smaltum (“enamel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to melt; to soften”). Doublet of smalt, smalto, and schmaltz.

noun

1. (obsolete, rare) Enamel (“an opaque, glossy coating”).
   Set Naples courser to an asse, / Fine emerawde vnto greene glasse: / Set rich rubye to redd emayle, / The raven's plume to peacocke's tayle: / … / There shall no less an oddes be seene, / In myne from everye other Queene! 11 January 1579, George Puttenham, “[Appendix] Partheniades [No. 15; believed to have been presented to Elizabeth I of England on 1 January 1579 (Julian calendar)]”, in Joseph Haslewood, editor, Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poësy (Miscellanea Poetica Anglicana Antiqua; 1), volume I, London: Printed by Harding and Wright,[…], for Robert Triphook,[…], published 1811, →OCLC, page xxxiv
   It is reported, that the Pope long ſince gaue them [the people of Iceland] a diſpenſation to receiue the Sacrament in ale, inſomuch as for their vnceſſant froſts there, no wine but was turned to red emayle, as ſoone as euer it came amongſt them. In other words, the weather was so cold that wine froze and resembled red enamel. 1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, The Terrors of the Night or, A Discourse of Apparitions, London: Printed by Iohn Danter for William Iones,[…], →OCLC, signature Diii; republished in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Complete Works of Thomas Nashe. In Four Volumes.[…] (The Huth Library), volume III, London, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: Printed [by Hazell, Watson, and Viney] for private circulation only, 1883–1884, →OCLC, pages 242–243
   Another part of this Earth being mixt with an equal part of its Salt, and put on the Fire to melt, in part pierc'd thro the Crucible, which was found on the outside, as it were, lin'd with a Brown Email, and the inside of the Crucible was cover'd with a Clear-Red Email. 1684, [Samuel] Du Clos, “The Eighth Class. Of Cold Waters somewhat Aigre and Vinous, which Participate of a Salt Resembling the Nitre of the Ancients.”, in Observations on the Mineral Waters of France, Made in the Royal Academy of the Sciences, […] Now Made English, London: Printed for Henry Faithorne, and John Kersey[…], →OCLC, pages 96–97