Etymograph

English

mail

Mail comes from Middle English male ‘bag’, from Old French male ‘bag, wallet’, from Frankish *malha, from Proto-Germanic *malhō ‘leather bag’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*malhō1‘leather bag’reconstructed
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*malhu1‘bag’reconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400male1‘bag, wallet’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400male1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500male1‘bag’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1499mail1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English mail
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1499, John Skelton: “What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale;…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*malhōWiktionary, English mail‘leather bag’reconstructed
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*malhuWiktionary, English mail‘bag’reconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400maleWiktionary, English mail‘bag, wallet’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400maleWiktionary, English mail
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500maleWiktionary, English mail‘bag’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1499mailWiktionary, English mail. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1499, John Skelton: “What, loo, man, see here of dyce a bale;…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with mail, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Middle English male

Explore everything descended from *malhō →

Another origin of mail

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*smh₁-tleh₂uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmacula‘blemish, mesh’
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*macla‘medieval spelling of macula’reconstructed
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400maille‘loop, stitch’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mayle‘mail armor’
  6. Englishtodaymail

From Middle English mayle (‘mail armor’), borrowed from Old French maille (‘loop, stitch’), from Vulgar Latin *macla, from Latin macula (‘blemish, mesh’), probably from Proto-Indo-European *smh₁-tleh₂, from *smeh₁- (‘smear, rub’).

Another origin of mail

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mōtaną‘to be permitted to, to be allowed’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*maþlą‘speech’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350mál‘agreement, speech, lawsuit’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150māl‘speech, contract, agreement’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mal
  6. Englishtodaymail

From *maþlą (‘meeting-place’), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (‘to encounter, come’), if so, related to meet, and moot.

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Today it means

noun A bag or wallet.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mail”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *malhō / mail