# Email's homophone **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610 "2020-02-27T18:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/21 "2020-02-28T01:16:34Z")
I’m still utterly baffled by the OP. How can you be reading a grammar & usage manual and not know what language it’s referring to? All I can imagine is that it’s not intended as pedantry, it’s intended as some kind of weak joke that there’s a French word email that predates the English word email? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/22 "2020-02-28T01:49:27Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Homophone means pronounced the same while homonym means having the same meaning. [Homonym means having different meanings](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym). ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/23 "2020-02-28T02:19:14Z")
The French ballet Coppélia (1870) is subtitled “la Fille aux yeux d’émail”, the girl with enamel eyes. Coppélia has enamel eyes because she’s a life-size mechanical doll but it’s possible that someone could mistake “émail” for her eye color? ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/24 "2020-02-28T02:32:45Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > In French, “émail” means enamel, pronounced “ay MY.” Thanks. I don’t speak French, but I’ve seen the word for enamel spelled _émaillé_. Is the added _-lé_ a case marker or something? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/25 "2020-02-28T02:36:59Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Thanks. I don’t speak French, but I’ve seen the word for enamel spelled _émaillé_. Is the added _-lé_ a case marker or something? No, it’s a past participle — “enameled.” ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/26 "2020-02-28T02:44:51Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > No, it’s a past participle — “enameled.” Ah, ok. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/27 "2020-02-28T02:54:31Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > In French, the word email, pronounced roughly aymai, means enamel. No. It. Doesn’t. The French word for enamel is **é** mail. Spell it right and there’s no possibility of confusion. You may think me a prig for insisting on the accent diacritic, but without that it just isn’t French. Including the accent is not optional. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/28 "2020-02-28T04:38:21Z")
Pretty clear that the pedant mentioned in the OP has it wrong; email (or enamel) is not a colour, but a characteristic that a colour may have - glossy, metallic, with the appearance of a colour created by applying enamel to metal. The OED records _email_ as a loan-word from French into English, meaning “enamel”, and notes that it is obsolete. The last cite is from 1684. The word survived in _email ink_, a particular kind of ink for application to glass, metal, porcelain, etc. Email ink was coloured, but it could be any colour. And _email ombrant_ is the name of an artistic technique for decorating pottery in “which a transparent coloured glaze is poured over an etched or stamped design, the impressions of the design appearing as shadows”. Again, colour, but no particular colour. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/29 "2020-02-28T06:23:23Z")
Oh, and electronic mail in French is “courriel” (paper mail is “courrier”.) Which led to the delightful neologism “pourriel” for “spam”: from “courriel” combined with “poubelle” for garbage can. (Yes, in French, even the word for garbage can is dainty…) ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/30 "2020-02-28T06:47:39Z")
They were pushing “courriel” hard when I lived in France (1999-2000) but in conversation, nearly everyone said “email” with a French accent. I had heard that the “courriel” movement was mostly dead these days, but is that not true? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/31 "2020-02-28T10:17:31Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I’m still utterly baffled by the OP. How can you be reading a grammar & usage manual and not know what language it’s referring to? All I can imagine is that it’s not intended as pedantry, it’s intended as some kind of weak joke that there’s a French word email that predates the English word email? I think that’s exactly what it is. I really hope the OP sends a link to this thread to the pedant in question. Also, although I have prescriptivist tendencies, I gave up the fight on “e-mail” vs “email” many years ago now - “email” is just neater, there is no need for the hyphen any more as there is very little possibility of confusion with either the French word (given it has an accent) or the obsolete English word. Using “e-mail” today is almost on a par with using “to-day” today. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/32 "2020-02-28T10:32:51Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > Using “e-mail” today is almost on a par with using “to-day” today. Good analogy. I finally dropped the hyphen about 10–12 years ago. It’s hard to believe now, but 200 years ago the big city on the Hudson was hyphenated “New\*\*-\*\*York” (known to readers of Washington Irving). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/33 "2020-02-28T11:08:05Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > No. It. Doesn’t. The French word for enamel is **é** mail. Spell it right and there’s no possibility of confusion. > > You may think me a prig for insisting on the accent diacritic, but without that it just isn’t French. Including the accent is not optional. The German word doesn’t have diacritics: “das Email”, “Deutsche Email Verband”, “Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik” (DEF) Slightly strange when I first saw it – and that was before e-mail. Another strange one was photocopie: I thought that was French, but perhaps I was wrong: they seem to be using facsimilé and télécopie now. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/34 "2020-02-28T12:42:11Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > You may think me a prig Oh, absolutely not. I don’t think that at all—I know it. Only a prig employs that construction, after all. I say this as a gesture of professional courtesy from one prig to another. 🙂 P.S. I’m totally with you: the diacritics matter. It’s not quite the same thing, but my local Trader Joe’s once promoted a special French cheese with a little in-store sign describing the cheese and the producer. Whoever drew that sign decided that the cheese was called “Fromager Depuis.” Of course, that means “cheesemaker since.” Baffled, I checked the real label, and saw the mistake: there was text saying “Cheesemaker since 1771,” but that was NOT the name of the cheese! ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/35 "2020-02-28T12:47:57Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Another strange one was photocopie: I thought that was French, but perhaps I was wrong: they seem to be using facsimilé and télécopie now. In French, _photocopie_ is the noun for a photocopy (as in Xerox). There’s also _photocopier_ (the verb, pronounced like fotocopiay) and _photocopieur_ (noun for the copying device). The other two words you mention are for faxes. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/36 "2020-02-28T14:10:39Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > [Homonym means having different meanings](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym). :smack: Of course you’re right. I was thinking of synonym. Senior moment. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/37 "2020-02-28T15:18:51Z")
In French, _émail_ is not a word for a particular color (like red, blue, etc.), but in the context of heraldry, it’s a word that can be translated by the English word _color_. The hues available in traditional heraldry are called _tinctures_ in English, _couleurs_ in modern French. They are divided into three types, the two metals being argent (silver or white) and or (gold or yellow); the five colors (in the strict technical sense), which are vert or sinople (green), sable (black), gules (red), azure (blue), and purpure (purple); and the two furs which are ermine and vair (the latter representing the fur of the red squirrel). In addition, there are several “stains” that are less traditional. This brings us to the technical use in heraldry of the French word _émail_ (plural _émaux_). It is the equivalent of the English technical term _color_ (i.e., vert, sable, gules, azure, or purpure). ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/38 "2020-02-28T15:37:53Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > …the fight on “e-mail” vs “email”… I think you’ve got it, this must be the context that we’re not seeing the OP. The pedant is railing against the (English) usage “email” without a hyphen, insisting that it should be written “e-mail”; and to support the prescription, making the weak joke that if you omit the hyphen you are not referring to electronic communication, you’re writing the French word “émail”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/39 "2020-02-28T16:25:50Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Good analogy. I finally dropped the hyphen about 10–12 years ago. It’s hard to believe now, but 200 years ago the big city on the Hudson was hyphenated “New\*\*-\*\*York” (known to readers of Washington Irving). Yeah, even the Associated Press Style Guide has deprecated “e-mail” in favor of “email.” And this is the style guide that – as late as the mid-1990s favored “teen-ager” for “teenager.” (Looks like they finally changed that in 2002). So if the AP is using “email” and you’re still using “e-mail,” you are a few decades behind the times. ---
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610/40 "2020-02-28T19:49:58Z")
This has been a great thread, everyone! Thanks so much for all the information! > [@Riemann](#): > > I think you’ve got it, this must be the context that we’re not seeing the OP. The pedant is railing against the (English) usage “email” without a hyphen, insisting that it should be written “e-mail”; and to support the prescription, making the weak joke that if you omit the hyphen you are not referring to electronic communication, you’re writing the French word “émail”. Yes, this is the context of that section of the usage guide except that I don’t believe that he was attempting a joke (which is not acceptable on whatever planet he is from). The pedant was making a point about clarity in writing. He implied that readers would not be confused by “e-mail”, which has one definition, but would be confused by “email”, which has “at least two” definitions. The interesting thing about this discussion is that his point about punctuation can only be made by removing accent marks. One would think that pedantry of this level would prevent him from doing so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emails-homophone/848610.md?page=3)