[ih] Any suggestions for first uses of "e-mail" or "email"?

[Nigel Roberts]

I recall it was referred to it as simply "mail" internally at DEC when I 
joined in 1980.

It was obviously electronic, so there was no need to say so.

My recollection is that "electronic mail" or "e-mail" only came into 
widespread use when the likes of The Source, and MCImail started 
offering mail services to the outside world, and a distinguishing 
adjective was needed to separate it from postal (a.k.a 'snail') mail.

So a cited first use of 'email' is not unreasonable, IMO.



On 24/07/15 12:29, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>      > Oxford English Dictionary looking for early usage of the term "email"
>
> Well, going on the thought that they likely wanted a published reference, I
> immediately turned to the RFC's. I looked at almost every RFC with 'mail' in
> the name, but as of 1978 (after their cited first use), the term 'electronic
> mail' still had not appeared.
>
> The term in use in the ARPANET community seems to have been 'network mail';
> so I would expect that 'electronic mail' originated elsewhere, and only
> became the common name in the ARPANET/Internet community once it was the de
> facto name everywhere else.
>
> 	Noel
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