Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Inflammation of the tissue surrounding a fingernail or toenail.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In pathology, inflammation about the nail; whitlow.
- n. [capitalized] [NL. (A. L. de Jussieu, 1815).] A genus of apetalous plants of the order Illecebraceæ, type of tribe Paronychieæ, known by the involucrate calyx of five hooded segments, each with a horn, point, or awn on the back. There are about 45 species, of warm and temperate climates—Arabia, the Mediterranean region, and America. They are small erect or spreading herbs, usually dichotomously branched, with narrow opposite leaves, and conspicuous shining silvery stipules. Their minute flowers are usually hidden between the stipules in dense axillary clusters. The genus has the general names of nailwort and whitlowwort. The flowers of P. argentea and P. capitata furnish an article known as Arabian or Algerian tea (which see, under
tea ). P. argyrocoma, the silver chickweed, or, as recently named, silverhead, is a scarce rock-loving species found in the mountains of the eastern United States, rendered beautiful by numerous small silvery heads covering its bushy top. - n. Plural of paronychium.
Wiktionary
- n. medicine An infection under the cuticle of a fingernail or toenail.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) A whitlow, or felon{3}.
WordNet 3.0
- n. low-growing annual or perennial herbs or woody plants; whitlowworts.
- n. infection in the tissues adjacent to a nail on a finger or toe
Etymologies
- From Latin paronychia, plural of paronychium (Wiktionary)
- Latin parōnychia, from Greek parōnukhiā : para-, around; see para- + onux, onukh-, nail. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Those infections, called paronychia, are caused by nibbling the skin around the fingernails, picking hangnails, trimming the cuticle too closely, wearing artificial nails, or using harsh cleansers or steel wool without wearing gloves.”
Consumer Reports: Q&A: Preventing skin infections around the nails?
“For example, targeted chemotherapy drugs (that zone in on one area of the body)—such as Taxol, for breast cancer—can cause fingernails and cuticles to become swollen and inflamed (a nail disease called paronychia).”
“Damage it and you risk the nasty infection paronychia, says Bailey.”
USA Today: Protecting the health of your nails for a polished look
“Cuticles are near the nail growth center and also protect the proximal nail groove, which, if exposed, is vulnerable to bacteria, fungus and paronychia, a common nail infection.”
“He shows signs of the paronychia—just as the first Mark Stewart does; his nails have some additional ridges on them because of trauma to the nail beds.”
“As the result of lateral deviation of growth, the nail presses upon the surrounding tissues, producing a varying degree of inflammation -- _paronychia_.”
“In paronychia the nail should be frequently trimmed and a pledget of lint or cotton be interposed between the edge of the nail and the adjacent soft parts; astringent powders and lotions may often be employed with advantage; and in severe and persistent cases excision of the nail, partial or complete, may be found necessary.”
“A daughter of a French officer was so tormented by a _paronychia_”
Folk Lore Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century
“This is well exemplified in the internal and superficial paronychia, one of which is attended with great pain and fever, and the other with little pain and no fever.”
“In the common paronychia a poultice is generally sufficient.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paronychia’.
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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corpus medicorum
words describing medical conditions
decubitus, kernicterus, foetor, paroxysm, tarsorrhaphy, balanitis, porphyria, arcus senilis, coitus interruptus, in extremis, la belle indiffer..., xanthelasma and 184 more...
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Lessons of Wordie / Wordnik
Words and concepts I learned on Wordie, or happened upon as I roamed through dictionaries and websites seeking ammunition.
usquebaugh, baugh, plunderbunny, plinthiform, hendiatris, buckjumper, peripetia, trenchmore, antifogmatic, felon, whitlow, paronychia and 152 more...
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spamdad's Words
lambic, weizenbock, bock, zymurgy, vade mecum, quotidian, sesquipedalian, eremite, sphragis, privation, aegis, sui generis and 275 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
Tweets
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