Provenance — where it came from
In late 2000, the Japanese carrier J-Phone released one of the world’s first camera phones. The service for sending its photos by mail was named 写メール (Sha-Mail) — 写 from 写真 (“photograph”), plus “mail.”
Japan is quick with scissors. 写メール was cut down to 写メ (sha-me), and the noun promptly grew into a verb: 写メる (sha-meru), “to take and send a phone photo.” For several years, Japanese pockets carried cameras while most of the world’s pockets did not, and this small word was the name for a daily act that did not yet exist elsewhere.
The company changed hands and names — J-Phone became Vodafone, then SoftBank. The word outlived all of it. People went on saying sha-me for years after the mail part disappeared, photographing not mail but lunch. A brand name from 2000, worn smooth by twenty years of mouths.
Field notes — how it’s used
犬の写メ見る？
inu no sha-me miru?
“Want to see phone photos of my dog?”