snail
pronunciation
How to pronounce snail in British English:
UK [sneɪl]
How to pronounce snail in American English:
US [sneɪl]
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- Noun:
- freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk usually having an external enclosing spiral shell
- edible terrestrial snail usually served in the shell with a sauce of melted butter and garlic
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- Verb:
- gather snails
Word Origin
- snail
- snail: [OE] Snail, like German dialect schnägel, Swedish snigel, and Danish snegl, comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *snag-, *sneg- ‘crawl’, which also produced German schnecke ‘snail’ and English snake. Lithuanian snāke ‘snail’ is a distant relative.=> snake
- snail (n.)
- Old English snægl, from Proto-Germanic *snagila (cognates: Old Saxon snegil, Old Norse snigill, Danish snegl, Swedish snigel, Middle High German snegel, dialectal German Schnegel, Old High German snecko, German Schnecke "snail"), from *snog-, variant of PIE root *sneg- "to crawl, creep; creeping thing" (see snake (n.)). The word essentially is a diminutive form of Old English snaca "snake," which literally means "creeping thing." Also formerly used of slugs. Symbolic of slowness since at least c. 1000; snail's pace is attested from c. 1400.
Example
- 1. Power generation is where the electric snail comes in .
- 2. However westernized chinese cities may now appear , the snail crawl of traffic and the ever-more frequent breakdown of transport systems nationwide have brought these lofty goals hurtling back to earth .
- 3. There once was a snail that wanted to buy a nissan z car .
- 4. The snail was the blue-haired fairy 's pet .
- 5. A snail with implanted biocatalytic electrodes connected with crocodile clips to the external circuitry .