Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a small piece of partly detached skin at the side or base of the fingernail.
noun
- a piece of skin torn away from, but still attached to, the base or side of a fingernail
also hang-nail, 1670s, apparently from hang (v.) + (finger) nail, but probably folk etymology from Old English agnail “a corn on the foot, painful spike (in the flesh)” from Proto-Germanic *ang- “compressed, hard, painful” (from PIE *angh- “tight, painfully constricted, painful;” see anger) + Old English nægl “spike” (see nail (n.)).
n.
- A small piece of dead skin at the side or the base of a fingernail that is partly detached from the rest of the skin.