Forms: 1 angnæʓl, 5 agnayt, -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. angnæʓl is cogn. w. OHG. ungnagel, mod. G. dial. anneglen, einnegeln (E. Müller), Fris. ongneil, ogneil; f. ang- (Goth. aggwus, cf. angsum), compressed, tight, painful + næʓl, 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-næʓl, 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 toc. Ibid., 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. παρ’ 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.
