You wouldn’t start off an e-mail with “My Dear X”, or “Dearest X”, since that would be too personal for a professional email, so “To X” being more impersonal seems like it would make the letter more professional-sounding, compared to “Dear X”.
You wouldn’t start off an e-mail with “My Dear X”, or “Dearest X”, since that would be too personal for a professional email, so “To X” being more impersonal seems like it would make the letter more professional-sounding, compared to “Dear X”.
I’m not sure of the reasons, I suspect it descends from older customs of writing “dearest” and the like among the upper classes in the 1800s… Those letters are always very flowery. Anyway, pure conjecture.
What I wanted to say is that I have seen a slip from “dear” to “hi” as the common email greeting in semi-formal spaces. I only ever see “dear” used for the very first email to a new contact, and even then relatively rarely.
I wonder if my colleagues have picked up on the fact that when I start an email “Dear-” rather than “Hi-”, it means I’m annoyed with them