E-mail! [was Re: Anal Retentive]

[Guy Haas <ghaas -at- NETSCAPE -dot- COM>]

Suzanne Townsend wrote:
>
   ...

>
> P.S.  By the way, for anyone who hasn't had enough yet: Does
> anyone know if is it true, as the following quote state, that
> "email" is an established convention? What is the source
> document?
>
> -------- Begin Quote --------
> -- from Philip Golabuk's "Cool Writing Tip Of The Day"
>      "... I received a suggestion from Guy Haas that this week's
>      Free Cool Writing Tip  (FCWT) address the question of
>      compounds, words elided to make new ones, coinages
>      legitimized by usage. Guy's example was  email,' a
>      contraction from  electronic mail,'

Guy's employer, Netscape Communications, has adopted "email",
but Guy lobbies for "e-mail", citing numerous parallel dictionary
examples such as A-bomb, D-day, G-man, H-bomb, I-beam, and X-ray.
(Never mind that his American Heritage Dictionary gives the four
versions of x ray, X ray, x-ray, and X-ray). Philip disagrees
with Guy.

--g

Guy K. Haas, Software Exegete
Netscape Communications Corporation
        They have their opinions, I have mine. I don't speak
        on their behalf, and I trust they do not speak on mine.

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