mail的词源
英文词源
- 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.)).
中文词源
mail（邮件）：古代用来装行李的旅行包
英语单词mail原本不是用来表示“邮件”，而是表示用来装行李的旅行包。它来自古法语male。直到17世纪，该词才被用来表示“装信的袋子”。到18世纪，该词才被用来表示袋子里装的“信、邮件、包裹”。在19世纪的英国，mail一般表示寄往国外的邮件，而寄往国内的邮件则称为post。
mail：[meɪl] n.邮件，邮政，邮递vt.邮寄vi.邮寄
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：mail 词源，mail 含义。
来自Proto-Germanic*malho,来自PIE*molko,皮袋，袋子。后引申词义旅行袋，信件袋，邮袋，最终用于指邮件。
来自古法语maille,铁丝网，锁子甲，来自拉丁语macula,斑点，网眼，词源同maculate,immaculate.因网眼形似一个个小斑点而引申该词义，最终用于指甲胄，即锁子甲。
来自中古英语male,租金，贡金，来自古英语mal,合同，协议，交易，来自Proto-Germanic*mathla,会面，来自PIE*mod,会面，集会，开会，词源同meet,moot.由会面引申词义讨论，协商，交易，协议，最后用于指租金，贡金。该词义现仅见于blackmail.拼写比较nail,rail.
mail：邮政(制度)，邮递；邮件，邮包
经古法语,来源于古高地德语malha(袋)。
