English
snail
Snail comes from Middle English snayl ‘a snail or slug’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *snagilaz.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*snagilazreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sneġel‘a snail or slug, a gastropod’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500snayl‘a snail or slug’
- Englishearliest quotation 1963snail
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*snagilazreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sneġel‘a snail or slug, a gastropod’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500snayl‘a snail or slug’
- Englishearliest quotation 1963snail
Earliest quotation: 1963, Margery Allingham, London: Chatto & Windus: “‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms…”
Every English word from Proto-Germanic *snagilaz
Today it means
noun Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *snagilaz / snail