1 informal : mail delivered by a postal system especially when contrasted with email : mail sense 1a I avoid using e-mail to complain. I use the phone or old-fashioned snail mail. — Arlene Silverman 2 informal : a nation's postal system : mail sense 2 The others have taken the traditional route: sending checks by snail mail.
Alternatives such as regular mail, physical mail, paper mail, and surface mail all have been used, as shown by a 1995-2008 ngrams for "snail mail,postal mail,regular mail,surface mail,air mail,paper mail,physical mail":
Every one of the terms has problems: postal mail, redundancy and ambiguity (does it mean threatening notes?); regular mail, ambiguity (does it mean email or paper mail?); physical mail, clumsy; paper mail, informal; surface mail, inexact (more paper mail goes by air nowadays).
The first recorded use of the phrase was in a 1942 article posted in the Lowell Sun, however, not until it was common to use Emails to transfer messages and information in the early 1990's, the slowness of conventional mail was so blunt.
1 informal : mail delivered by a postal system especially when contrasted with email : mail sense 1a I avoid using e-mail to complain. I use the phone or old-fashioned snail mail. — Arlene Silverman
She still uses snail mail for paying bills. I can be contacted by e-mail and snail mail.
Alternatives such as regular mail, physical mail, paper mail, and surface mail all have been used, as shown by a 1995-2008 ngrams for "snail mail,postal mail,regular mail,surface mail,air mail,paper mail,physical mail":
Which is technically, Lettermail™, a trademark owned by Canada Post
One way of avoiding the ambiguity is to use the proper name of the country's postal service. If one is speaking of sending something from the UK, one can thus say that it will be sent 'by Royal Mail'; if it is to be sent from the US, one can say that it will be sent 'by the USPS'. These terms have the additional advantage of distinguishing such services from those provided by the companies such as DHL or UPS (although that may be a disadvantage, if one wants a term that encompasses all of them, and puts them in contrast to e-mail). They also, obviously, cannot be used in a context that is intended to cover sending things from a number of different countries.
Highly active question. Earn 10 reputation (not counting the association bonus) in order to answer this question. The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity.
If one says 'We will send you a hardcopy of the document by mail', it will be perfectly clear that the mail that is referred to is not e-mail.
Simply "mail" by itself may be sufficient. If you need to specifically reference physical mail delivered by the Post Office then "Postal Mail" may be preferable.
Postal mail is the usual term when one needs to be formal. "Terrestrial mail" is not in use and would likely cause at least some confusion.
Snail Mail. The phrase ‘Snail Mail’ (or ‘Smail’) refer to mail that was carried by the traditional postal delivery service.
The first recorded use of the phrase was in a 1942 article posted in the Lowell Sun, however, not until it was common to use Emails to transfer messages and information in the early 1990's, the slowness of conventional mail was so blunt.
Handwritten direct mailers enjoy a 99% open rate. That’s unheard of in the digital world.
What’s one thing you certainly can’t do with email or text messages? You can’t send your loved ones or business contacts a gracious handwritten card or letter. Handwritten communications are far more compelling than their digital counterparts, and they live firmly in the real world. They can still learn new tricks, however.
With Simply Noted, you can create custom, handwritten mailers in any quantity, personalized to each recipient. They’re a great way to follow up with digital leads, prospect for new customers, alert existing customers to special offers, and thank loyal clients for their continued business.
Zapier integrates with over 2,000 different applications. If you need a custom integration, you can use the service’s APIs. You can link nearly anything to Simply Noted for instant access to handwritten snail mail.
Snail mail is still the most common channel for sending birthday cards . People understand that eCards are too impersonal for something as important as a birthday. But that doesn’t mean you can’t apply a little technology to improve things.
When somebody says “mail” they may be referring to one or the other or even both.
No, E-mail is E-mail, which comes from Electronic Mail. " Mail " is the general term for " letters and packages conveyed by the postal system " (NOAD), although it can also indicate electronic mail depending on the context.
Snail mail, or Postal mail, is still the standard, ordinary mail system, but this expressions simply highlights its intrinsic slowness, being opposed to the E-mail that is fast.
Alternatives such as regular mail, physical mail, paper mail, and surface mail all have been used, as shown by a 1995-2008 ngrams for "snail mail,postal mail,regular mail,surface mail,air mail,paper mail,physical mail":
Which is technically, Lettermail™, a trademark owned by Canada Post
One way of avoiding the ambiguity is to use the proper name of the country's postal service. If one is speaking of sending something from the UK, one can thus say that it will be sent 'by Royal Mail'; if it is to be sent from the US, one can say that it will be sent 'by the USPS'. These terms have the additional advantage of distinguishing such services from those provided by the companies such as DHL or UPS (although that may be a disadvantage, if one wants a term that encompasses all of them, and puts them in contrast to e-mail). They also, obviously, cannot be used in a context that is intended to cover sending things from a number of different countries.
Highly active question. Earn 10 reputation (not counting the association bonus) in order to answer this question. The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity.
If one says 'We will send you a hardcopy of the document by mail', it will be perfectly clear that the mail that is referred to is not e-mail.
Simply "mail" by itself may be sufficient. If you need to specifically reference physical mail delivered by the Post Office then "Postal Mail" may be preferable.
Postal mail is the usual term when one needs to be formal. "Terrestrial mail" is not in use and would likely cause at least some confusion.