agnail
(ˈægneɪl)
Forms: 1 angnæᵹl, 5 agnayl, -lle, 6 angnaylle, angnale, agnale, 6–7 agnayle, agnell, 7 agnel, agnaile, 7– agnail.
[A word of which the application (and perhaps the form) has been much perverted by pseudo-etymology. The OE. angnæᵹl is cogn. w. OHG. ungnagel, mod.G. dial. anneglen, einnegeln (E. Müller), Fris. ongneil, ogneil; f. ang- (Goth. aggwus, cf. angsum), compressed, tight, painful + næᵹl, Goth. nagls nail. The latter had here the sense, not of ‘finger-nail,’ unguis, but of a nail (of iron, etc.) clāvus, hence, a hard round-headed excrescence fixed in the flesh; cf. wer-næᵹl, warnel, a wart, lit. ‘man-nail’ (as opposed to ‘door-nail,’ ‘wall-nail,’ etc.). So, L. clāvus was both a nail (of iron, etc.) and a corn in the foot. Subsequently -nail was referred to a finger- or toe-nail (unguis), and the meaning gradually perverted to various (imaginary or real) affections of the nails: see senses 2, 3.]
† 1. A corn on the toe or foot. Obs.
| c 950 Saxon Leechdoms II. 80 Wiþ angnægle argesweorf & ealde sapan. a 1440 MS. Med. Linc. lf. 300 (in Halliw.) For agnayls one mans fete or womans. 1483 Cath. Angl., Agnaylle. 1530 Palsgr., Agnayle upon ones too, corret. 1547 Boorde Breuiary ii. (1552) 3 Clauus is the latin..In englyshe it is named cornes or agnelles in a mannes fete or toes. 1551 Turner Herbal ii. 2 Figges..purge away angnaylles and suche harde swellinges. Ibid. (1568) 17 [Aloe] heleth also agnales when they are cut of. 1575 Turberville Venerie 137 They skinne a kybed heele, they fret an angnale off, So thus I skippe from toppe to toe. 1601 Holland Pliny xx. iii, Passing good for to be applyed to the agnels or corns of the feet. 1611 Florio, Fignoli, agnels, cornes, pushes, felons or swellings in the flesh. 1611 Cotgr., Corret, an agnaile, or little corne, vpon a toe. 1611 ― Frouelle, an agnell, pinne, or warnell in the toe. 1783 Ainsworth Lat. Dict., Morticini..agnails, or rather corns, especially on the feet and toes. |
2. Any ‘painful swelling,’ ‘ulcer,’ or ‘sore,’ under, about, around the toe- or finger-nail; in J. and subseq. Dicts. identified with whitlow. [This change of explanation seems due to pseudo-etymology; whether confusion with Fr. ‘angonailles, botches, (pocky) bumps, or sores,’ Cotgr., or med.L. anghiones, anguinalia, carbuncles, contributed the ‘ulcers’ or ‘sores’ is uncertain; but -nail, misinterpreted, fixed the locality. The further identification with whitlow (in the Dicts.) seems due to collating the Gr. name of the latter παρονυχία (f. παῥ beside + ὄνυχ- nail) with ag-nail (quasi ag- at + nail). Ash explains agnail as ‘a whitlow, paronychia,’ and paronychia as ‘a perpetual sore under the root of the nail, a whitlow.’]
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens 258 Good to be layde unto..ulcered nayles, or agnayles, whiche is a paynefull swelling aboute the ioyntes and nayles. 1633 W. Langham Gard. Health (ed. 2) 95 It draweth out splents and broken bones, and openeth noughty vlcers and agnayles, that grow about the roots of the nayles. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Agnail, a sore between the finger and the nail. 1721 Bailey, Agnail, a sore at the root of the nail on the fingers or toes. 1755 Johnson, Agnail, a disease of the nails, a whitlow. 1847 Craig [as J.]. |
3. A ‘hang-nail’; see quot. [Hang-nail, given by Halliwell as a dialect word, is evidently like the Sc. equivalent anger-nail (anger = irritation, inflammation), a corruption of ang-nail, putting a plausible meaning into it. That is, ang-nail, dialectally pronounced hang-nail, was explained as ‘hanging’ or detached nail. This explanation of agnail appears first in Bailey 1737 (ed. 1736 having only sense 2); the form hang-nail is in Craig 1847, and is now commoner in London than agnail.]
| 1742 Bailey, Agnail: a sore slip of skin at the root of a nail. 1758 Dyche & Pardon, Agnail; the soreness that arises from the stripping up the flesh into thin slices at the bottom and corners of the nails. 1847 Halliwell, Agnail, a hang-nail, either on the finger or toe. Hangnails, small pieces of partially separated skin about the roots of the finger⁓nails. Various dialects. 1879 Syd. Soc. Lex., Agnail, a term applied to the shreds of epidermis which separate from the skin covering the root of the nail, and which, on being torn, give rise to a painful state of the fingers. 1882 Weldon's Illustr. Dressmaker Oct., Suppl. 6 This method practised daily will keep the nails in perfect preservation, also preventing agnails. |