[ih] Invention of term 'email'

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: SM <sm at resistor.net>

    > The "invention" is a copyright of a somputer program for electronic
    > mail system called "EMAIL"

It's pretty obvious to anyone who knows anything that this young man didn't
(and couldn't) have invented email (the thing). Any such claims aren't even
worth discussing here.

But one of the claims that Chomsky is making, in his statement:

  http://www.inventorofemail.com/noam-chomsky-on-invention-of-email-va-shiva-ayyadurai.asp

(which is linked to in the article I forwarded) has to do with the creation
of 'email', the term. Chomsky notes:

  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in modern times, the date of
  origin of email is 1979

although I don't know what their citation is (I don't have access to the OED).

But this young man's work was before 1979, so it's _conceivable_ that he's
the source of the term. But it's also conceivable that it was independently
re-invented elswhere, and the spread into ubiquitous usage is rooted in such
a re-invention, not this young man's invention.

And that's what I'm interested in - is there any validity to the claims of
origin for the term. (The OED cite would be the place to start, obviously.)

	Noel