snail: [OE] Snail, like German dialect schnägel, Swedish snigel, and Danish snegl, comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *snag-, *sneg- ‘crawl’, which also produced German schnecke ‘snail’ and English snake. Lithuanian snāke ‘snail’ is a distant relative. => snake
snail (n.)
Old English snægl, from Proto-Germanic *snagila (cognates: Old Saxon snegil, Old Norse snigill, Danish snegl, Swedish snigel, Middle High German snegel, dialectal German Schnegel, Old High German snecko, German Schnecke "snail"), from *snog-, variant of PIE root *sneg- "to crawl, creep; creeping thing" (see snake (n.)). The word essentially is a diminutive form of Old English snaca "snake," which literally means "creeping thing." Also formerly used of slugs. Symbolic of slowness since at least c. 1000; snail's pace is attested from c. 1400.
双语例句
1. The train was moving now at a snail's pace.
火车这会儿走得跟蜗牛一样慢。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The snail left a trail of slime along the floor.
蜗牛在地板上留下一道黏液.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. I confess it with shame -- shrunk icily into myself, like a snail.
我羞愧地忏悔了 —— 冷冰冰地退缩, 像个蜗牛.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.
放假前的时间过得很慢.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. Snail is a small plant - eating creature with a soft body.
