Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
any mail that is physically delivered by the postal service;
- Example: "email is much faster than snail mail"
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
snail mail
n 1: any mail that is physically delivered by the postal
service; "email is much faster than snail mail" [ant:
e-mail, electronic mail, email]
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
snail mail
papermail
paper-net
(Or "snailmail", "smail" from "US Mail" via
"USnail"; "paper mail"). Bits of dead tree sent via the
postal service as opposed to electronic mail. One's postal
address is, correspondingly, a "snail (mail) address". There
have even been parody USnail posters and stamps made.
The variant "paper-net" is a hackish way of referring to the
postal service, comparing it to a very slow, low-reliability
network. Sig blocks sometimes include a "Paper-Net:"
header just before the sender's postal address; common
variants of this are "Papernet" and "P-Net". Note that the
standard netiquette guidelines discourage this practice as a
waste of bandwidth, since netters are quite unlikely to
casually use postal addresses and if they really wanted your
snail mail address they could always ask for it by e-mail.
Compare voice-net, sneakernet, P-mail.
(1995-01-31)