A pet peeve, the use of the term "chain mail". I know it's a term
most people recognise these days, but chain mail, or chain maille
was coinned by Hollywood.
Mail is the short form of Maille and Maille means chain… so chain
mail is “chain chain”.
The one reason I like “chainmail” with no space as a internet search
term. Chainmaille would be even better. Searching for mail finds me a
long on stuff I’m not looking for.
And you heard it here first but this is scalemail or scalemaille
(again with no space so google can find it):
The proper term appearing in historical inventories is “maille” or
"mail" when applied to armor created from various combinations of
interlocked metal (riveted and non-riveted/punched) rings. Chainmail
is an 18th century Victorian term.
“Mail”, with all of the linguistic variants like Maille, Mayle, etc.
The Romans had a version called Lorica Hamata. Sticking “chain” in
front of it started in the 1700’s, actually, but really got
ingrained during the Victorian era.
Mail is the short form of Maille and Maille means chain... so
chain mail is "chain chain".
Funny, for me as a non-english native speaker, “chain maille” was
always good : “maille” is french for “stitch”, a chain maille is a
cloth of metal, a wool maille is called a pullover.
I have to agree searching for the term “mail” is a royal pain in the
rump. Chainmail has become a term that everyone uses, so I guess who
am I to say otherwise.
Arrrgh! Scalemail, it’s just like saying “platemail”… the term
scale or plate… thinking set of scales on a google search, and
dinner ware for plate… lol I give up
I think I’ll just go back to the Roman terminology
Regards Charles A.
P.S. The scale is very pretty btw.
By the time (1700) this term was coinned, mail was pretty much a
thing of the past in Europe.
Interesting use of Beowulf as a reference, although Beowulf is an old
story, the earliest surviving copy of the story only dates back to
1882 (again mail as a body armour in Europe was no longer used).
I’m a native English-speaker (US). I’d say it’s very common to see
“chainmail” here, and though I don’t claim to be an expert it would
seem to me that the word originated with the double-l and the e, so
why not spell it that way. Therefore “chainmaille” is the version I
choose to use. I will say, though, that if someone said they were
making “mail” I’d wonder what the heck they were talking about, that
is something that is sent through the postal service. If someone,
however, says they are making “maille”, I don’t believe there’s any
confusion there.
The oldest surviving Beowulf manuscript is found in the Nowell
Codex and dates from ~1000.
That’s what I vaguely remember from high school. My senior year they
hired a PhD to improve the English program. He was an expert in Old
English and we read Beowulf.
I'm a native English-speaker (US). I'd say it's very common to see
"chainmail" here, and though I don't claim to be an expert it
would seem to me that the word originated with the double-l and the
e, so why not spell it that way. Therefore "chainmaille" is the
version I choose to use. I will say, though, that if someone said
they were making "mail" I'd wonder what the heck they were talking
about, that is something that is sent through the postal service.
If someone, however, says they are making "maille", I don't believe
there's any confusion there.
There’s English and there’s English.
E.g. Aluminium and Aluminum
The word didn’t actually originate with a “lle”, but if people want
to choose a term that is recognised as a pseudo brand name who am I
to argue. I’m an English speaker and I choose to use the English
term.
"Mail, mayle or chain was the English name for it, maille was the
French version, and it was called malien in Flemish and Dutch. This
and the alternative spellings maile and maille derive through the
Italian maglia, from the Latin macula, meaning “mesh of a net”. The
Spanish corresponding word is malla and in Portuguese it is malha.
The Welsh term lluric derives from the Latin lorica.
Many modern American armourers prefer the French spelling “maille”
in order to avoid confusion with the term chain letter for
‘chainmail’ or postal delivery for ‘mail’."
I believe “mail” is a more generic term, referring to personal
armor, and can come in various types. You may be right, but since
most of the declarations you’ve made til now have been wrong, I won’t
take it for gospel.
I believe "mail" is a more generic term, referring to personal
armor, and can come in various types. You may be right, but since
most of the declarations you've made til now have been wrong, I
won't take it for gospel.
Well nobody’s perfect, I’ll be the first to admit that.
As we have seen through the course of this discussion, mail means
“net”. Plate is a term used for body armour made from sheets of
metal, the term “platemail”, does not work, and seemed to originated
when people started playing Dungeons and Dragons.