Etymology

snail

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Today it means: Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell. Full definition →

Middle English snayl ← Old English sneġel ← Proto-Germanic *snagilaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*snagilaz
  2. Old English · inherited fromsneġel
  3. Middle English · inherited fromsnayl
  4. English todaysnail

From Middle English snayl, snail, from the Old English sneġel, from Proto-Germanic *snagilaz. Cognate with Low German Snagel, Snâel, Snâl (“snail”), German Schnegel (“slug”). Compare also Old Norse snigill, from Proto-Germanic *snigilaz.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.