"Mail Merge" is such an unintuitive phrase. .. When I first heard it I had no idea this was anything to do with sending a templated word document to a email recipient list, auto filling in their personal details.
It was originally for "merging" document templates with tables (e.g., mailing list of people's names and postal addresses), for customized paper mailings, mailing labels, etc.
I don't know whether the term predates its use by WordStar and microcomputers. It sounds very batch-processing.
(Source: Had WordStar 3.3 for generic MS-DOS as kid, bought a surplus copy of an Epson QX-10 edition of Mail Merge for $5, somehow got that turned into a copy I could run, for my Alex P. Keaton adolescent business ventures.)
