<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>On January 4, 1978 ARPA published a "Completion Report" for the ARPAnet project (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/chris/DIGITAL_ARCHIVE/ARPANET/DARPA4799.pdf). In that report there are discussions of what we call email on pages III-113 to III-115 and III-131. In both instances the term "network mail" was used. This leads me to believe that the word "email" was not in common use in the ARPAnet community in the second half of 1977 when the report was written. So it is easy for me to believe that the 1979 date given by the OED is correct.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br><span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: times new
roman,new york,times,serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>Cheers,</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>Alex<br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Dave Crocker <dhc2@dcrocker.net><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> <br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> "internet-history@postel.org" <internet-history@postel.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, June 4, 2013 11:23 AM<br> <b><span
style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [ih] first use of "email" (redux)<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br>On 6/4/2013 3:44 PM, Miles Fidelman wrote:<br>> Apropos recent discussions of the "inventor of email"....<br>><br>> Just came across this:<br>> <a href="http://public.oed.com/appeals/email/" target="_blank">http://public.oed.com/appeals/email/</a><br>><br>> An appeal from the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary, seeking any<br>> use of the term earlier than 1979.<br><br><br>I've sent them a query, to find out their basis for citing 1979.<br><br>I also just search the msggroup and header-people archives for the 1970s <br>and could not find an occurrence of "email" or "e-mail". This surprised me.<br><br>d/<br><br><br>-- <br>Dave Crocker<br>Brandenburg InternetWorking<br>bbiw.net<br><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>