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Hangnail is altered by folk etymology from angnail or agnail, which originally did not correspond to what we now know as “hangnail.” In Old English angnægl meant “corn on the foot,” with the element nægl referring not to a fingernail but rather the nail we drive in with a hammer, with the head of an iron nail being likened to a hard corn. By the 16th century, the association of -nail with the body’s nails led to a new sense, “an inflammation around a finger- or toenail.” The first element, ang- or ag-, which is akin to Old English enge, “painful,” was no longer understandable. Some speakers altered it to hang-, so that the dominant sense of both hangnail and agnail came to be “loose skin at the root of a fingernail.”
Examples of hangnail in a Sentence
Mark Gurarie, Health, 9 Oct. 2024
However, a hangnail for me could be career ending.
—John Smoltz talks right up until the pitch is thrown.
—Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2024
Because dry air can cause hangnails on the cuticles of our toenails, just like on our fingernails.
—Megan Decker, refinery29.com, 5 Jan. 2024
Cuts around the nail bed or hangnails can also contribute to an ingrown nail.5
A cut on your finger, a hangnail, or too-short nails can also allow bacteria to get inside and cause an infection.
—Courtney Southwick, Health, 12 July 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Hangnail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hangnail. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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hangnail
noun
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