According to Wikipedia, “snail mail is a dysphemistic retronym — named after the snail with its slow speed — used to refer to letters 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.”
Wiki also says: “This term was used at least as early as 1981 in the animated feature Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City, but not in the above sense contrasted with electronic mail, but rather as a rhyming joke to describe mail being delivered by an actual snail. Strawberry receives her letter three weeks late because, as the snail character admits, “Snail mail, she is slow”.”
but….“In the sense of contrasting it with electronic mail, however, Mr Jim Rutt is purported to have first used this phrase in January 1981. Mr. Rutt later went on to become CEO of Network Solutions.”
And: Wiki also notes: “term was used in the 1840’s to contrast the already operating postal mail with the new instantaneous telegraph. The Philadelphia North American stated “The markets will no longer be dependent upon snail-paced mails”.”
My question then is who coined the term snail mail, and when did it become part of our common vocabulary, as distinct from email, which is how most of us mail things today? Did it happen overnight, the adoption of the term snail mail, or did it take a good ten years or so?
The transformation of language is fascinating. Way back in 1840s, even! Then Rutt in 1981. Is he still alive and where?
What I am curious to know and find out is if there was much resistance from the media and common usage when snail mail was first popularized. I mean, did many naysayers naysay and say “You can’t just call normal post office mail, snail mail, who do you think you are, that word will never catch on!” But it did catch on! Why did it catch on and who popularized it? If they had called it turtle mail, would that have worked too?
Snail mail? Turtle mail? Who names these things?
