snail-mail

1 definition found

snail-mail - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  snail-mail
   n.
  
     Paper mail, as opposed to electronic. Sometimes written as the single
     word `SnailMail'. One's postal address is, correspondingly, a snail
     address. Derives from earlier coinage `USnail' (from `U.S. Mail'),
  for
     which there have even been parody posters and stamps made. Also (less
     commonly) called P-mail, from `paper mail' or `physical mail'. Oppose
     email.
  
     (Note: Actual garden snails progress at about 10 meters per hour,
     which is about 25-50 times slower than the U.K.'s Royal Mail;
     comparable measurements for other countries have not yet been made.
     More biologically apt terms might be "sloth-mail" at 250 m/hr or
     "tortoise-mail" at 270 m/hr. See
     
  http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/answers/789communication.jsp?tp=c
     ommunication for details.)