Nag, n'ag -- let him alone, will ya?

Thank you very much, tsuwm; I was so puzzled, reading Dave's post: I knew that what I was thinking of couldn't possibly be the end of a shoelace (my knowledge of the word coming from having read about a child in school being hit with a ferule). I hadn't known there were two different words. I wonder if ferrule \fer-ul\ noun [alter. of ME virole, fr. MF, fr. L viriola, dim. of viria bracelet, of Celtic origin; akin to OIr fiar oblique] is related to iron? That is, it strikes me (no, not with a hot iron, golf or other type!) that the first ones of these securing bands or even bracelets might have been made of iron.