Forum: Author Hangout

Aliens Among Us?

Ross at Play 🚫
Updated:

I ran an ngrams query for the percentage of times that 'email' is used compared to the sum of 'email' and 'mail'. Not surprisingly, the graph showed a rapid increase beginning in the mid-1980s, reaching about 18% by 2008.

BUT - cue the spooky music from the X-Files here - from about 1810 to 1860 the graph was consistently in the range 6-10%, then only gradually faded up until about 1900.

Fox Mulder will be pleased to finally have proof !

Does anyone know what the word 'email' was being used for so frequently in the first half of the 19th century?

Dinsdale 🚫

Email is German for "enamel", postulating a large number of German-speaking immigrants . . .

Replies: Ross at Play helmut_meukel

Ross at Play 🚫
Updated:

@Dinsdale

Email is German for "enamel", postulating a large number of German-speaking immigrants . . .

Thanks. That makes sense.

Also, 'mail' did not begin to mean 'by post' in English until the mid-17th century. I extended that ngrams query back to the 16th century and the use of 'email' was approximating 100%.

helmut_meukel 🚫

@Dinsdale

Email is German for "enamel", postulating a large number of German-speaking immigrants . . .

Another German spelling is Emaille, both from French "Émail".
In Dutch it's email, too.

So immigrants from at least three countries used "email".

HM.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@helmut_meukel

Another German spelling is Emaille, both from French "Émail".

It sounds sexier getting racy email when it's from Emaille.

Zom 🚫

There was also an antipodean company called Email since 1951. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_Limited

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Forum: Author Hangout

Aliens Among Us?

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