RE: what does "AW:" mean?

> > Now a more difficult question: what does "RE" mean?
> 
> http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.re.html
> 
> From the Beginner's Guide to Effective Email:
> 
> "Re" is a Latin word meaning "about", as in the title of the important
> medieval book De re metallica.

As someone already mentioned, "re" means "thing or matter"; in this title,
it's the "De" that means "about".

> "Re" has probably been used in correspondence since before there was
> correspondence in English.

That sounds more reasonable to me than someone's idea that Re: began
with computers.

It's interesting, though, that the way Re: is used in email today,
it's associated strictly with replies; nobody uses "Re: ___"
when they first compose an email message.  (In contrast to its
use in formal memos.)  So its meaning in email is different from
its former meaning, and one could speculate that the change in
meaning was helped by the resemblance of "Re:" to "reply".

Whoever was looking at the RFC regarding "Re:" before, did it say
for what purpose it might be used?  Did it specify replies?

Lars


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