English → Latin
“snail” in Latin
cochleasnail; spiral (form of a snailshell); screw of a presslīmāxslug, snailreferōto bear, bring, drive, or carry back, off, or away; to give back, give up, return, restore, pay back, repay, render, paylentussticky, tenacious; slow, sluggish; flexible, pliant
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
snail
cochlea (general term): limax (without a shell). A snail in its shell, limax conchae implicitus (Cic.): like a snail, cochleae speciem habens, referens: a snail’s shell, domus cochleae (Suet.); cochlea (Mart.): a snail’s pace (figuratively), incessus tardus, lentus (Cic.); gradus testudinum (Plaut., Aul., 1, 1, 10): people who travel at a snail’s pace, homines spissigradissimi, tardiores quam corbitae sunt in tranquillo mari (Plaut., Poen., 3, 1, 4).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for snail?
- The usual Latin words for “snail” are cochlea, līmāx, referō; also lentus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.