Snail mail

Snail mail or smail (from snail + mail) is a dysphemistic retronym—named after the snail with its 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, land mail, or simply mail. An earlier term of the same type is surface mail, coined retrospectively after the development of airmail.

蝸牛郵件是一個返璞詞，在電子信息時(shí)代出現(xiàn)之前，沒有電子郵件的概念，所有的郵件都可以稱之為蝸牛郵件。蝸牛郵件的稱呼來源于和電子郵件相比，傳統(tǒng)郵件速度慢的特點(diǎn)。所有蝸牛郵件也可以叫紙質(zhì)郵件、傳統(tǒng)郵件或者普通郵件。

來看下面的例子：

It is called "snail mail " because it can be very slow , as is snail .

之所以被叫做“蝸?！笔且?yàn)樗乃俣群苈?，好像蝸牛一般?

In the digital age , writing an old fashioned , snail mail letter to a friend will surely make his day .

在數(shù)字化時(shí)代，寫一封老式的平信給朋友，絕對可以讓他高興一整天。