This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
nomophobia
partocracy
opsomania
onychophagy

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(ah-nuh-KAH-fuh-je)

MEANING:

noun: The practice of biting one’s nails.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek onycho-, from onyx (nail) + -phagia (eating). Earliest documented use: 1898. Also known as onychophagia.

NOTES:

The word comes to us from the same Greek onyx that gave us the mineral. Because sometimes onyx resembles a fingernail, pink with a white streak. Onychophagy shows that Greek can make everything sound elegant, even nail-biting.

USAGE:

“Alain-Raymond van Abbe, a former health industry and cosmetics promoter, estimates the world’s pathological nail biters number 600 million or more. He saw that onychophagy was so widespread that he has opened a clinic devoted to curing nail biters.”
Clinic Works at Nail-Biting End; The Mercury (Hobart, Australia); Sep 14, 2007.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: