Snail mail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Snail mail is a derogatory retronym — named after the snail with its proverbially slow speed — used to refer to letters and missives carried by conventional postal delivery services. The phrase refers to the lag-time between dispatch of a letter and its receipt, versus the virtually instantaneous dispatch and delivery of its electronic equivalent, e-mail. It is also known, more neutrally, as paper mail, postal mail, Canada Post, or land mail.

Snail mail is also a term used in reference to penpalling. Snail mail penpals are those penpals that communicate with one another through the postal system, rather than on the internet which is becoming the standard form of communication for penpals.

Some online groups also use paper mail through regular gift or craft hot topics. In some countries services are available to print and deliver emails to those unable to receive email, such as the elderly. Mail A Letter is one such service in the USA; in the UK, Royal Mail offers a similar service.

This term was used at least as early as 1981 in the animated feature Strawberry Shortcake: Big Apple City to describe mail being delivered by a snail. Strawberry receives her letter three weeks late because, as the snail character admits, "Snail mail, she is slow".