e-mail 的词源

1982年，electronic mail（电子邮件）的缩写（1977年首次使用；参见 electronic + mail (n.1)）。这也导致了人们对旧邮件系统的蔑视性称呼——snail mail（蜗牛邮件），该词出现于1983年。

Even aerial navigation in 1999 was found too slow to convey and deliver the mails. The pneumatic tube system was even swifter, and with such facilities at hand it is not surprising that people in San Francisco received four daily editions of the Manhattan journals, although the distance between Sandy Hook and the Golden Gate is a matter of 3,600 miles. ["Looking Forward," Arthur Bird, 1899]

1999年，连航空运输都被认为太慢，无法及时发送和递送邮件。气动管道系统甚至更快，考虑到这些设施的存在，旧金山的人们每天都能收到来自曼哈顿期刊的四份日报，尽管桑迪胡克到金门大桥之间的距离达3600英里。[《展望未来》，亚瑟·伯德，1899年]

美联社的风格指南在2011年将其简化为 email。