"place for breeding (edible) snails," 1725, from snail (n.) + -ery.
Entries linking to snailery
snail n.
common name for a small gastropod on land or in fresh water, Middle English snail, from Old English snægl, from Proto-Germanic *snagila (source also of Old Saxon snegil, Old Norse snigill, Danish snegl, Swedish snigel, Middle High German snegel, dialectal German Schnegel, Old High German snecko, German Schnecke "snail").
This is reconstructed to be from *snog-, a variant of PIE root *sneg- "to crawl, creep; creeping thing" (see snake (n.)). The word essentially is a diminutive form of Old English snaca "snake," etymologically, "creeping thing."
Snail also formerly was used of slugs. Symbolic of slowness at least since c. 1000; snail's pace "very slow pace" is attested from c. 1400. Related: Snaily; snailish; snailing.
-ery
word-forming element making nouns meaning "place for, art of, condition of, quantity of," from Middle English -erie, from Latin -arius (see -ary). Also sometimes in modern colloquial use "the collectivity of" or "an example of."