Etymology Map
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Email

2 stages from American English to English.

Today it means messages sent electronically from one computer user to another

Where does the word "email" come from? It comes from American English electronic mail, adopted directly into English (1980s).

1
Stage 1 of 2
electronic mail
American English · 1971
"computer-to-computer messages"
Ray Tomlinson at BBN in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sent the first email between networked computers on ARPANET in 1971 and chose the @ sign for addresses
2
Stage 2 of 2
email
English · 1980s
"electronic messages"
shortened to e-mail by the early 1980s; the Associated Press style guide dropped the hyphen in 2011
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Email’s story begins in American English: electronic mail meant “computer-to-computer messages.” Ray Tomlinson at BBN in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sent the first email between networked computers on ARPANET in 1971 and chose the @ sign for addresses. It reached English by 1980s as email. Shortened to e-mail by the early 1980s; the Associated Press style guide dropped the hyphen in 2011. Today, email means messages sent electronically from one computer user to another.