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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--onychophagia This week's theme: uncommon words with common suffixes or prefixes. onychophagia (on-i-ko-FAY-juh, -jee-uh) noun The practice of biting one's nails. [From Greek onycho-, from onyx (nail) + -phagia (eating).] -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "If bad-tasting polish, gloves or fake nails haven't cured your onychophagia, these tips may help." Maria Liberty; Easy, Essential Nail Care; Better Nutrition for Today's Living (Atlanta); Mar 1994. X-Bonus Kindness is not without its rocks ahead. People are apt to put it down to an easy temper and seldom recognize it as the secret striving of a generous nature; whilst, on the other hand, the ill-natured get credit for all the evil they refrain from. -Honore De Balzac, novelist (1799-1850),

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