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David Ibbetson <ibbetson -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM> wrote:
> I was wondering why "email" made me uneasy and suddenly
> realised that there's a danger that a stranger to the subject
> would, at least momentarily, confuse it with the French
> "e<acute>mail", "enamel", which is sometimes used by
> English-speaking fine-art dealers.
I prefer "e-mail", too, but that's the silliest argument for
keeping the hyphen I've ever heard. English has innumerable
pairs of different words that are spelled the same, and I find
it hard to imagine a pair less likely to be confused.
Next you'll be arguing that I should pronounce "URL" as
"you-are-ell" instead of "earl" to avoid confusing Web
addresses with British noblemen.
