Where does “snail” come from?

Snail comes from Middle English snaile, from Old English sneġel, from Proto-Germanic snigilaz, a creature named for its slow movement.

snail (English): Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell

Definitions

  1. Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell

Ancestry of “snail”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle EnglishsnaylA snail or slug; a gastropod
2Old Englishsneġela snail or slug, a gastropod
3Proto-Germanicsnagilazsnail

Words derived from “snail”

Every word from Proto-Germanic snagilaz →