mail

• n. 郵件；郵政，郵遞；盔甲
• vt. 郵寄；給…穿盔甲
• vi. 郵寄；寄出
• n. (Mail)人名；(法)馬伊

來自Proto-Germanic*malho,來自PIE*molko,皮袋，袋子。後引申詞義旅行袋，信件袋，郵袋，最終用於指郵件。

來自古法語maille,鐵絲網，鎖子甲，來自拉丁語macula,斑點，網眼，詞源同maculate,immaculate.因網眼形似一個個小斑點而引申該詞義，最終用於指甲胄，即鎖子甲。

來自中古英語male,租金，貢金，來自古英語mal,合同，協議，交易，來自Proto-Germanic*mathla,會麵，來自PIE*mod,會麵，集會，開會，詞源同meet,moot.由會麵引申詞義討論，協商，交易，協議，最後用於指租金，貢金。該詞義現僅見於blackmail.拚寫比較nail,rail.

mail

mail: English has two extant words mail. The one meaning ‘post’ [13] goes back via Old French to Old High German malha, which meant ‘bag, pouch’. That indeed was what the word originally denoted in English (and modern French malle is still used for a ‘bag’). It was not until the 17th century that a specific application to a ‘bag for carrying letters’ emerged, and this was followed in the next century by the ‘letters, etc so carried’. Mail ‘chain-armour’ [14] comes via Old French maille ‘mesh’ from Latin macula, which originally meant ‘spot, stain’ (hence English immaculate [15], etymologically ‘spotless’), but was transferred to the ‘holes in a net’, from their appearance of being spots or marks.

The word maquis, made familiar in English during World War II as a term for the French resistance forces, means literally ‘scrub, undergrowth’ in French. It was borrowed from Italian macchia, a descendant of Latin macula, whose literal sense ‘spot’ was applied metaphorically to ‘bushes dotted over a hillside’. English once had a third word mail, meaning ‘payment, tax’ [12].

It was borrowed from Old Norse mál ‘speech, agreement’. It now survives only in blackmail [16].
=> immaculate, maquis

mail (n.1)

"post, letters," c. 1200, "a traveling bag," from Old French male "wallet, bag, bundle," from Frankish *malha or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *malho- (cognates: Old High German malaha "wallet, bag," Middle Dutch male "bag"), from PIE *molko- "skin, bag." Sense extension to "letters and parcels" (18c.) is via "bag full of letter" (1650s) or "person or vehicle who carries postal matter" (1650s). In 19c. England, mail was letters going abroad, while home dispatches were post. Sense of "personal batch of letters" is from 1844, originally American English.

mail (n.2)

"metal ring armor," c. 1300, from Old French maille "link of mail, mesh of net," from Latin macula "mesh in a net," originally "spot, blemish," on notion that the gaps in a net or mesh looked like spots.

mail (v.)

"send by post," 1828, American English, from mail (n.1). Related: Mailed; mailing; mailable. Mailing list attested from 1876.

mail (n.3)

"rent, payment," from Old English mal (see blackmail (n.)).

1. The Daily Mail has the headline "The Voice of Conscience"

《每日郵報》的頭版標題為“良知的聲音”。

來自柯林斯例句

2. Goods may be sent by surface mail or airmail.

貨物可通過平寄或空運發送。

來自柯林斯例句

3. An e-mail is already circulating amongst news staff calling for voluntary redundancies.

在新聞部員工中已經在轉發一封電子郵件,呼籲大家自願裁汰.

來自柯林斯例句

4. Peter starts looking through the mail as soon as the door shuts.

彼得一關上門就開始逐一查看起郵件來。

來自柯林斯例句

5. People had to renew their motor vehicle registrations through the mail.

人們必須以書信方式重新登記機動車輛。

來自柯林斯例句