0

If I'm not mistaken, the term for the place, at which we receive mails in the "physical world", is called a post (or a post-box). However, when referring to the "electronic world", I've never encountered the word e-post; thus, I'd like to ask whether it exists?

Remark: I'm asking for the generic term depicting the place, where emails are received, not for how its particular description (i.e. the email address) is called.

Edwin Ashworth
  • 83,272
ExcuseMeIfAskingDumbQuestion
  • 9
  • 2
  • 1
    We don't tend to use post much in American English, except as a verb meaning to attach something on a vertical surface (or metaphorically to do so). British English uses post in the mail sense, both as a verb and a noun. But as a noun, my understanding is that BrE uses it to refer to the institution or system of physical mail, or the bulk of mail itself. Not to the place it is received. That is, in both AmE and BrE, your *mailbox* (or in an office, real or metaphorically, your *inbox). These terms have also been co-opted for email. Or do you mean a post office*, maybe? – Dan Bron May 02 '16 at 14:29
  • You are right. The term post(-box) means what I asked for only in the countryside, where each house has its private "inbox". In the city, houses usually have letter holes, no post-boxes.

    And no - I didn't mean "post office". As you said, that's the institution which handles mail.

     – ExcuseMeIfAskingDumbQuestion May 02 '16 at 14:47
  • No, the hole in or by the front door of most houses is not a "postbox", it is a "letterbox". A "postbox" is the red box with a slot set in a public place where you can send mail by posting it. Many postboxes are the tradiional self-standing cylindrical shape, and are also called "pillar boxes". – Colin Fine May 02 '16 at 16:42
  • 1
    If I'm not mistaken, the term for the place, at which we receive mails in the "physical world", is called a post -- You are mistaken. It is not. – Greybeard Oct 05 '21 at 10:36

1 Answers1

2

No, in British English email is referred to exclusively as 'email', despite the fact that regular 'mail' is called 'post'. Other nouns associated with email also use 'mail': so 'mailbox', 'mail server' etc. are used.

Post boxes are never referred to as posts. Posts are tall thin things that stick out of the ground. 'Post box' refers to the place where you post a letter to send it. The place where mail is delivered to you is called a 'letter box' (usually).

Canada Post (i.e. the Canadian mail system) has a service called 'ePost' which allows you to receive mail electronically, but the name is specific to that service.

DJClayworth
  • 25,795