Onychology

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The branch of medicine and science concerned with the study of fingernails and toenails, their structure, growth and diseases
2. A specialised field of study examining the nails of the human hand and foot, including their anatomy and the conditions that affect them
3. The scientific examination of nails, covering how they form, what they are made of, and the disorders that can change their appearance

Etymology: Onychology is a plain technical coinage, built from two Greek elements. The first, "onycho-", comes from Greek "onyx", which meant "claw", "talon" or "hoof" before it came to mean the banded gemstone, and it gives English its word for nails and claws. The second, "-logy", comes from Greek "logos", "word" or "discourse", and in English it turns a root into the name of a field of study, as in biology or geology. Put together, the pieces describe exactly what the word names: the systematic study of nails. Its meaning is transparent from its parts, so no special story of coinage or shift in sense lies behind it. Anyone who knows that "onyx" once meant a claw will find the word's meaning already spelled out in its first syllable.