Etymology

sea snail

Today it means: Any saltwater snail; a marine gastropod mollusk with a shell (contrasted with sea slug). Full definition →

Middle English *se-snail ← Old English sǣsnæġl
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromsǣsnæġl“seasnail”
  2. Middle English · inherited from*se-snail
  3. English todaysea snail

From Middle English *se-snail, from Old English sǣsnæġl (“seasnail”), equivalent to sea + snail. Cognate with Danish søsnegl (“seasnail”), Norwegian sjøsnegl (“seasnail”), Icelandic sjósnigill (“seasnail”).

Words from the same roots

Middle English*se-snail all →

seasnail

Old Englishsǣsnæġl all →

seasnail

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.