Etymograph

English

Snark

Coined by Lewis Carroll as a nonce word in The Hunting of the Snark (1874).

A blend of snail + shark

Proto-Germanic *snagilaz

Old English sneġel ‘a snail or slug, a gastropod’

Middle English snayl ‘a snail or slug’

English snail

Middle English shark

English shark

The story

Coined by Lewis Carroll as a nonce word in The Hunting of the Snark (1874). According to Beatrice Hatch, Carroll created this word as a blend of snail + shark.

Today it means

name A fictional animal in Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Snark

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