As a Hotmail user, I have noticed a word appearing more and more frequently around MSN services. The word is greymail or graymail and is a recent addition to the vocabulary of Microsoft after a research team uncovered a type of email that did not fit the definition of junk or spam email, yet still caused a nuisance to some of its users. Linguistically, it is interesting to ponder the creation of this word because it could have come about through the extension of an existing metaphor. To elaborate, things can be seen as black and white, but traditionally, there is also a category in the middle where concepts are not so clear. This is called the grey area and could have been where the research team at Microsoft found their idea. So, by attaching grey to the word mail, they have formed a compound word which can be distinguished from a seemingly black, or junk, mail (unrelated to the crime), as well as the white mail of which we all want to receive. However, as of yet, these words have not been formed, but it has allowed Microsoft to declare war on greymail and use another, more violent, metaphor from war vocabulary for emphasis. It's a shame that they didn't use their grey cells (which are named for their colour) to come up with something more inventive!
