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(computer science) a system of world-wide electronic communication in which a computer user can compose a message at one terminal that is generated at the recipient's terminal when he logs in

(computer science) a system of world-wide electronic communication in which a computer user can compose a message at one terminal that is generated at the recipient's terminal when he logs in

A system containing any combination of computers, computer terminals, printers, audio or visual display devices, or telephones interconnected by telecommunications equipment or cables: used to transmit or receive information. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)

(e-mail) Messages automatically passed from onecomputer user to another, often through computer networksand/or via modems over telephone lines.A message, especially one following the common RFC 822standard, begins with several lines of headers, followedby a blank line, and the body of the message. Most e-mailsystems now support the MIME standard which allows themessage body to contain "attachments" of different kindsrather than just one block of plain ASCII text. It isconventional for the body to end with a signature.Headers give the name and electronic mail address of thesender and recipient(s), the time and date when it was sentand a subject. There are many other headers which may getadded by different message handling systems during delivery.The message is "composed" by the sender, usually using aspecial program - a "Mail User Agent" (MUA). It is thenpassed to some kind of "Message Transfer Agent" (MTA) - aprogram which is responsible for either delivering the messagelocally or passing it to another MTA, often on another host.MTAs on different hosts on a network often communicate usingSMTP. The message is eventually delivered to therecipient's mailbox - normally a file on his computer - fromwhere he can read it using a mail reading program (which mayor may not be the same MUA as used by the sender).Contrast snail-mail, paper-net, voice-net.The form "email" is also common, but is less suggestive of thecorrect pronunciation and derivation than "e-mail". The wordis used as a noun for the concept ("Isn't e-mail great?", "Areyou on e-mail?"), a collection of (unread) messages ("I spentall night reading my e-mail"), and as a verb meaning "to send(something in) an e-mail message" ("I'll e-mail you (myreport)"). The use of "an e-mail" as a count noun for ane-mail message, and plural "e-mails", is now (2000) also wellestablished despite the fact that "mail" is definitely a massnoun.Oddly enough, the word "emailed" is actually listed in theOxford English Dictionary. It means "embossed (with a raisedpattern) or arranged in a net work". A use from 1480 isgiven. The word is derived from French "emmailleure",network. Also, "email" is German for enamel.The story of the first e-mail message(http://pretext.com/mar98/features/story2.htm).