Now dial. Forms: 1 wernæʓel, 7 warnell, wornel, 8– wornil (9 corruptly wommal, wurmal), 8– warnel. [OE. wernæʓel, perh. f. *wearh pus (see WARE sb.6, WARIBREED) + næʓel NAIL sb.]
1. A hard tumor on the back of cattle, produced by the larva of a gadfly: = WARBLE sb.2 2.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 28. Þa lærde hi sum iudeisc man, þæt heo name ænne wernæʓel of sumes oxan hrige [etc.].
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 838. Warbles or wommals, that is, small swelled protuberances along the chine, caused by the larvæ of the Œstrus bovis or cattle-bot.
1852. T. W. Harris, Insects Injur. Veget., 500. Large open boils, sometimes called wornils or wurmals, that is, worm-holes.
1864–5. Wood, Homes without H., xxvi. (1868), 512. The swellings caused by the Breeze Fly are called Wurbles or Wornils.
b. The maggot producing tumors of this kind: = WARBLE sb.2 3.
1674. trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, xxviii. 132. About March worms or wornels do begin to breed in their backs.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., VIII. vi. (1727), 378. In the Backs of Cows … there are Maggots generated, which in Essex we call Wornils; which are first only a small Knot in the Skin.
c. Comb.
1708. Kersey, Warnel-worms, certain Worms that stick within the skin of Cattel on their Backs. Whence in later Dicts.
† 2. = AGNAIL 1. Obs.
1611. Cotgr., Frouelle, An agnell, pinne, or warnell in the toe.
