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  1. snail mail love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Informal Mail delivered by a postal system, as distinct from electronic mail.

Wiktionary

  1. n. retronym Postal mail, especially as compared to email

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. any mail that is physically delivered by the postal service

Etymologies

  1. A retronym emphasizing postal mail's slowness compared to email. (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “In addition to Kathleen Miller’s research and Jeffrey McQuain’s and Elizabeth Phillips’s language aid, those helping me at the Times’ Washington bureau include my assistant Anne Elise Wort, who keeps her eye out for current words, and Todd Webb, who tries to keep up with both snail mail and e-mail.”

    Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘snail mail’.

Comments

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  • bilby Fine by me. Let's turn the bugger around. Lear jets shall henceforth proceed on the ground, and only at speeds reflective of having their wheels tied together. Feb 10, 2009

  • sionnach
    Was this term actually invented by Edward Lear, which would make it not a retronym?

    Feb 10, 2009

Tweets

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‘snail mail’ has been looked up 1283 times, added to 12 lists, commented on 2 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.