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
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
His walleyed, foul-smelling, hangnail of a classics teacher charts a course toward redemption, and the ride is enjoyable.
—Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 6 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for hangnail 
Articles Related to hangnail
Dictionary Entries Near hangnail
Cite this Entry
“Hangnail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hangnail. Accessed 7 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
hangnail
noun
Share