{"id":23078,"date":"2023-09-20T14:56:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T14:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23078"},"modified":"2023-09-20T14:56:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T14:56:22","slug":"hanging-nails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23078","title":{"rendered":"Hanging Nails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <strong>hangnail<\/strong> is an <strong>angry nail<\/strong>, not a nail that\u2019s hanging off. Let\u2019s find out more.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/olegeorg\/4667100344\/in\/photolist-9xixCQ-dSaTWs-tUBoL-9PXJs7-2hpKfYp-5atM3f-af9tZE-af6LJ6-af9utG-5NGth9-WwWfY-eNLkrS-7pLzH8-4ky7JQ-5RVu4Y-aSwzve-femj4J-7pWJDM-7N23jC-5tqG8x-4vHJGH-d7oZe1-87q7kj-edZvDf-5rbkJU-GJEAH-2nMJ78f-7HZiHG-5JqePR-25pfdGJ-9iPuFf-9iLopk-9V2Kff-FECZM-6PYoMV-6Q3uqh-4FGWPm-76DxZQ-2mgtBF5-3cm2Ts-2mgkYYV-2JNVQe-9ivAUe-2mfyoub-4rsxaC-7N96iF-5w3LKi-oMJzkz-p5dG26-mt1AK\" title=\"Rusty key \/ rusten n\u00f8kkel\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4005\/4667100344_e01587020e_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Rusty key \/ rusten n\u00f8kkel\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>hangnail<\/strong> is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail.<\/li>\n<li>A pointed upper corner of the toenail (often created by improperly trimming by rounding the corner) that, as the nail grows, presses into the flesh or protrudes so that it may catch (\u201chang\u201d) on stockings or shoes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from the old word <strong>agnail<\/strong> (a corn or sore on the toe or finger, torn skin near a toenail or fingernail), from Middle English <em>agnail<\/em>, from Old English <em>angn\u00e6gl<\/em>, from <em>ang<\/em> (compressed, narrow, tight) and <em>n\u00e6gl<\/em> (nail), from Proto-Germanic <em>*naglaz<\/em> (nail, peg), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*h\u2083nog\u02b0-<\/em> (nail). It was reanalyised as <strong>hang<\/strong> + <strong>nail<\/strong> in folk etymology [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/hangnail\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><em>Ang<\/em> comes from Proto-Germanic <em>*angus<\/em> (narrow, tight) from Proto-Indo-European <em>*h\u2082\u00e9n\u01f5\u02b0us,<\/em> (narrow, tight), from <em>*h\u2082en\u01f5\u02b0-<\/em> (to constrict, tighten, narrow, tight, distresed, anxious) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/hangnail\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same root include <strong>anger<\/strong>, <strong>angina<\/strong>, <strong>angst<\/strong>, <strong>anguish<\/strong>, <strong>anxiety<\/strong> and <strong>anxious<\/strong> in English, <strong>ahdas<\/strong> (tight, narrow, cramped) in Finnish, <strong>c\u00fang<\/strong> (narrow) in Irish, and <strong>\u0443\u0437\u043a\u0438\u0439<\/strong> [\u02c8usk\u02b2\u026aj] (narrow, tight) in Russian [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/h%E2%82%82en%C7%B5%CA%B0-\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>England<\/strong> possibly comes from the same root (at least the first syllable does) &#8211; from Middle English <em>Engelond<\/em> (England, Britain), from Old English <em>Engla land<\/em> (\u201cland of the Angles\u201d), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*Angl\u012b<\/em>, from Proto-Germanic <em>*angulaz<\/em> (hook, prickle), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*h\u2082enk-<\/em> (to bend, crook), which may be related to <em>*h\u2082en\u01f5\u02b0-<\/em> (to constrict, tighten, etc) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/England#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other names for <strong>hangnail<\/strong> include <strong>whitlow<\/strong>, <strong>wicklow<\/strong>, <strong>paronychia<\/strong> and <strong>nimpingang<\/strong>  [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/whitlow#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Whitlow<\/strong> comes from Middle English <em>whitflaw<\/em>. The <strong>whit<\/strong> part comes from Middle Dutch <em>vijt<\/em> or Low German <em>fit<\/em> (abscess), from Latin <em>f\u012bcus<\/em> (fig-shaped ulcer), and the <em>flaw<\/em> part comes from Middle English <em>flawe, flay<\/em> (a flake of fire or snow, spark, splinter), probably from Old Norse <em>flaga<\/em> (a flag or slab of stone, flake), from Proto-Germanic <em>*flag\u014d<\/em> (a layer of soil), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*pl\u0101k-<\/em> (broad, flat).  [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/whitlow\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wicklow<\/strong> is a common misspelling of <strong>whitlow<\/strong>, and <strong>paronychia<\/strong> comes from Ancient Greek <em>\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1<\/em> (para &#8211; beside), and  <em>\u1f44\u03bd\u1fe0\u03be<\/em> (\u00f3nux &#8211; claw, nail, hoof, talon) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paronychia\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nimpingang<\/strong> comes from Devonshire dialect and refers to \u201ca fester under the finger nail\u201d. <strong>Nimphing gang<\/strong> is an alternative version, and in West Somerset it is known as a <strong>nippigang<\/strong>. It comes from <strong>impingall<\/strong> (ulcer, infected sore), from Old English <em>impian<\/em> (to graft) [<a href=\"https:\/\/devonassoc.org.uk\/ddd-the-dictionary\/\">source<\/a>] from Proto-West Germanic <em>*imp\u014dn<\/em> (to graft), from Vulgar Latin <em>imput\u014d<\/em> (to graft), from Ancient Greek <em>\u1f14\u03bc\u03c6\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2<\/em> (\u00e9mphutos &#8211; natural, (im)planted) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/impian\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>imp<\/strong> (a small, mischievous sprite or a malevolent supernatural creature) in English and <strong>impfen<\/strong> (to inoculate, vaccinate) in German [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-West_Germanic\/imp%C5%8Dn\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A hangnail is an angry nail, not a nail that\u2019s hanging off. Let\u2019s find out more. A hangnail is: A loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail. A pointed upper corner of the toenail (often created by improperly trimming by rounding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,104,107,109,116,127,10,182,26,33,36,44,45,52,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-greek-","category-english","category-etymology","category-finnish","category-german","category-irish","category-language","category-middle-dutch-dietsc-duutsch","category-middle-english","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-old-norse","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-russian","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23078"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23081,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23078\/revisions\/23081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}