The Transition of Maile

[mcbishop]

"Maile" hasn't been used for centuries. "Mail" is the commonly accepted modern English term.

This confirms me in my view that the use of 'maile' in this context is an affectation. A Google search reveals that 'maile' is a flowering Hawaiian vine of the dogbane family.

Quite agree, and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary has 'mail' (i.e. armour) as a core sense for the word and no copy-editor would tolerate otherwise.

To answer the original question: we don't have enough evidence to answer the question :-)

Mike Bishop