hmmm... great trepidation. You don't think there's anyone
on this list with an aggressive nature, do you?
Layered meaning:
In Hebrew, many words have layers of meaning, not simply
denotation vs. connotation, but actual layers of meaning.
For example the Hebrew word shamayim is often translated
as heaven or heavens or sky or skies. It is a dual word
(not singular or plural) relating it to the prevailing
Babylonian cosmogony of the time of 2 skies, the sky above
the horizon "freshwater" and the sky below the horizon
"bitterwater". (the word for water is mayim) Part of the
poetry present in Hebrew scriptures was a kind of word
play and referencing of the other-layer meanings, hence
the later reference to dividing the waters above from the
waters below.
I think in this sense qmail has multi-layered meanings.
There is q(uick)mail implying both the modern meaning
of quick, "fast", and older meanings of quick, "sure"
"able", as in "the quick youth"
Then, there is the sound reversal. Itamix makes a web browser
xitami (itamix backwards). Well qmail is a sound switch
for "mail queue"
As for spelling it Qmail, or qmail, or QMail, well, any
should do. It's hard enough dealing with the confusion of
html sent to non-html aware MUA's.
My vote for the punctuation would be QmaIl
meaning "Quick Installation may alter life"
capitals first, then small letters,
but I lived in California for a few years.
It would be nice if some consensus answer
gets around before people start passing
around some offensive interpretation.
Alex Miller
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Kitabjian [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 1999 11:56 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: "q" in "qmail" means ?
>
>
>
> I ask this question with great trepidation. Either I'm the only
> one brave
> enough to ask, or I'm the only one stupid enough to have to ask, but...
>
> What does the "q" in "qmail" mean?
>
> Dave
>
> p.s. Since I'm going to get flamed for stupidity, let me ask another
> question:
>
> If LWQ insists that the official name is "qmail", not "Qmail",
> why does the
> logo start with "Q" on http://www.qmail.org/top.html?
>
