hangnail

noun

hang·nail | \ˈhaŋ-ˌnāl

Definition of hangnail

: a bit of skin hanging loose at the side or root of a fingernail

Did You Know? Example Sentences Learn More about hangnail

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Did You Know?

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

Recent Examples on the Web

Rub cuticle oil wherever the skin meets the nail, then use a nail pusher to push back the skin around the nail to get rid of the dead skin that can morph into a hangnail. — Donna Bulseco, WSJ, "The He-Manicure: A Guide to CEO-Worthy Nails," 2 May 2018 Next to the headphone jack, the microUSB port is hidden beneath a push-to-open plastic slot that’s just begging to get ripped off like a hangnail. — Christina Bonnington, WIRED, "Review: Nokia Lumia 800," 29 Nov. 2011

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hangnail.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.