means a soft-bodied gastropod mollusc that carries a coiled shell on its back and moves slowly by gliding on a muscular foot.

from From Old English 'snægl,' a shrunken cousin of words across the Germanic family (Old Norse 'snigill,' German 'Schnecke'), all tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning roughly 'to crawl or creep.' The same ancient sense survives in 'snake' and 'snail's' near-twin the 'slug' — a whole crawling clan named for how they move, slowly, low to the ground.