Hangnails and the little blue pill

Here's something fun within the realm of a certain brand name that most of us didn't know...

Hangnail • Although it is possible that a torn fingernail or toenail can have a hanging remnant and thus be called a "hangnail," more often hangnail refers to a piece of cuticle (the skin at the base of the nail) that has split away and become painful. The origin of hangnail (which first appeared in 1678) is agnail (circa 950). An agnail was not a hangnail at all but a sore on the foot. The ag- in agnail means "tight and painful" — think agony and aggrieve. The suffix -agra means "pain," podagra meaning "pain in the foot," chiragra meaning "pain in the hand." (Sort of makes you wonder what "Viagra" means, doesn't it?)...

- excerpt from Charles Hodgson's Carnal Knowledge - A Navel Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia

Adland® is supported by your donations alone. You can help us out by buying us a Ko-Fi coffee.
Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
comment_node_story
Files must be less than 1 MB.
Allowed file types: jpg jpeg gif png wav avi mpeg mpg mov rm flv wmv 3gp mp4 m4v.
kurtberengeiger's picture