Hi, all-
I was reading a grammar and usage manual from a pedant in my industry, and came across this: “(By the way, note that email (pronounced “ay-my”) is a color.)”
Imagine trying to google “what color is email?” It doesn’t work.
Does anybody know what color email is?
I can’t parse what your source thinks the pronunciation should be? Is the 2nd syllable pronounced like the word “my” as in, my car?
I’ve only seen it written down, so I can’t say for sure. I mentally have been pronouncing it as “hay” without the “h” and “my”, the standard pronunciation.
Purple.
(Amythest )
“Email” also means to emboss by hammering over chain mail (the armor, not the pastime). At least, I think. The web is not so easy for looking up obscure and antiquated uses of the word.
I can’t believe someone knows! Is it an English word in this form? Is it a word used only in a specific subject matter?
I think you mean homonym, not homophone. Homophones are two words that are spelled differently, but pronounced the same, but here I think you mean two words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently.
That is my birth stone. Coincidence? I think not.
what day? Are you a leap baby?
What language are we talking about here? I’m really confused.
You are correct. I came across the distinction after I posted and used the wrong word. But, I learned the new (to me) word “homograph,” which would have been correct in this case.
Yes, homograph is the correct word. Homophone means pronounced the same while homonym means having the same meaning. Homographic heterophones (or is it heterophonic homographs) are two words spelled the same but pronounced differently, such as lead (the metal) and lead (the verb).
In French, the word email, pronounced roughly aymai, means enamel. I have never seen it as an English word, but what do I know? The French word for email is courrierel. Courrier is mail and el obviously refers to electronique.
me too 
This French color chart shows Bleu Email as a sort of turquoise.
oops! edumacated!
That is a state secret, lest Swampy send me colorful, oversize birthday greetings in the MMP.
I am not a leap baby.
In French, “émail” means enamel, pronounced “ay MY.”
No, because émail is not a color—it’s a material.
I’m nearly certain that Mithril’s source has mistranslated from French. Bleu èmail translates literally as “enamel blue,” and Pantone has defined just such a color in English.
I’m not a native francophone, though my French became passable when I lived in Normandy for a year. All the native-francophone graphic designers on the board (or anyone else who knows for sure) are welcome to correct me.
ETA: My year in Normandy was a loooong time ago, and I’m quite rusty now.
Thank you all for the information! It warms my heart that the writer seems to be mistaken, considering that he often makes the victims of his pedantry cry. I don’t know him, so it will be a quiet vindication.
Cite? It seems that others have the actual explanation.
