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There's another aspect to the word e-mail and its
history--the plural. Back before the word e-mail
appeared, the word mail was commonly used instead.
Native writers of English always agreed that the
plural of mail might be mail, or pieces of mail,
of mail files, or something like that, but was
*never* "mails". Non-native writers, on the other
hand, nearly always referred to mails.
For reasons mostly historical and personal I try
to avoid the plural form "e-mails" (with or without
a hyphen). I feel that "mails" as a plural is like
saying "deers" or "childs".
Because it's Friday, I'll list a few e-words that
need to be distinguished by retention of hyphens.
e-land (virtual land existing only in a computer)
vs eland (an ox-like [not oxlike] African antelope)
e-migrate (to go somewhere without leaving your computer)
vs emigrate (to leave out from here to live elsewhere)
e-MIT (mythical means for attending MIT over the Internet)
vs emit (to send forth or throw off)
e-quality (being strictly electronic or computerized)
vs equality (being equal)
Please don't complain that those e-words aren't real.
Maybe they weren't but they are now. Besides, as I
said, it's Friday.
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