Editor's Corner

Good morning, dear people. One of my favorite newsletters is called A.Word.A.Day by a fellow named Anu Garg. He picks a theme and then each day of the week elaborates on the words he’s chosen. Well, a week or so ago, he chose “mail.” Here’s how he introduced the topic:

…There are many kinds of mails:

• Email and postal mail, from Old French malle (bag)
• Chain mail, an armor made of interlinked rings, from Old French maile (loop)
• Blackmail, from Middle English male (rent or tribute)

These three types of mails are homonyms—they have the same spelling and pronunciation—but they are distinct words with distinct origins.

I happen to have a thing for chain mail, maybe because my brother was a metal worker and artist, maybe because I love knights and castles. Whatever it is, I’d like to share bits and pieces of Anu’s articles (and the words and origins about mail) with you. Oh, and I’d also like to reveal this aluminum chain mail armor (only $200 on eBay):

snail mail
noun: The physical delivery of letters and other material. Also, a piece of such mail.
verb tr., intr.: To send a letter or other material by the postal system.

From snail, known for its sluggishness, from Old English snægl + mail, from Old French malle (bag). Earliest documented use: 1929.

greenmail

noun: The practice of buying a large quantity of a company’s stock as a means of hostile takeover, then selling it back to the company at a higher price.
verb tr.: To subject a company to this tactic.

From green (money), from greenback (US currency note, from the color of its printing) + mail (as in blackmail), from Middle English male (rent or tribute), from Old English mal (agreement, pay), from Old Norse mal (agreement). Earliest documented use: 1983.

postal

adjective:
1. Relating to the mail or the post office.
2. Very angry, insane, or violent.

From French poste, from the posting of horse riders at intervals to transport letters along a route. Earliest documented use: sense 1: 1842, sense 2: 1993.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a series of unconnected shootings by disgruntled workers of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) led to the phrase “going postal.” This term highlights extreme anger or violence, gaining prominence despite the homicide rate at USPS being only a fraction of that in the general workplace. With over half a million employees at the USPS, these incidents notably stood out.

mailed fist

noun: A threat or show of force to maintain control.

[KC – I was expecting something like “Backpfeifengesicht —
a face that’s badly in need of a fist.”]

Translation of German gepanzerte Faust (mailed fist), from Panzer (armor) + Faust (fist). The word mail here is an armor made of interlinked rings, as in chain mail, from Old French maile (loop). Earliest documented use: 1897.]

[KC – There is actually a modern day use for this: cleaning meat slicers. Do they supply these in most delis? No. Should they? Definitely! I was
cleaning a slicer once, and we used our bare hands, a sponge, and usually the floor was wet. I nicked a vein and, well, I didn’t finish my shift that night. In another deli, we had these chain mail gloves, and they were amazing.]

graymail

Formed on the pattern of blackmail, using “gray” to denote something that is indeterminate or falls into a “gray area”. The word mail here (as in blackmail) is from Middle English male (rent or tribute), from Old English mail (agreement, pay), from Old Norse mal (agreement). Earliest documented use: 1978.

Thanks for joining me to learn about all of the different types of mail there are!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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