What is this in your finger called?

[Yourjones]

Hello,

Toward the end of autumn, (or maybe in early winter as well) we usually get this in our finger. It causes pain even when you try to put your hand in your glove. What is it called?

Thanks.

 

[Raymott]

It's paronychia.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001444.htm
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...&ei=AvgzVMLSEMa7igKSr4DACQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCwQsAQ

 

[riquecohen]

I agree with Raymott, but I haven't known paronychias to be seasonal. (I'm not a dermatologist.)

 

[emsr2d2]

I have never heard that word in my life! For me, that's just a picture of cracked/split skin. I suffer from it in the winter when my hands get really cold and dry.

 

[tzfujimino]

Can't we use 'chapped skin' to describe it?

 

[emsr2d2]

I would consider that a bit worse than "chapped" which, to me, just means dry and a bit sore, usually white in appearance. I would say my skin goes from chapped to split if I don't look after it properly.

 

[Raymott]

Can't we use 'chapped skin' to describe it?

No, it's a specific term for fingernails. You can get chapped skin anywhere. This is an infection that gets into the split skin beside the nail.
παρωνυχία from para, "around" and onukh-, "nail") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paronychia
It is sufficiently common with its own complications, course and treatment to have a specific proper name.

 

[lotus888]

It's a "hangnail".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangnail
https://www.wordnik.com/words/hangnail


--lotus

 

[Yourjones]

hangnail or agnail

Hi thanks. I think I was looking for hangnail or agnail. Best

 

[probus]

Re: hangnail or agnail

Here's a great cure for paronychia. I had a paronychion that stubbornly resisted eight weeks of antibiotic treatment, and eventually we decided to remove the fingernail surgically. The surgeon interviewed me for five minutes before agreeing to do the surgery, and throughout the interview he kept gently but firmly squeezing the end of my finger. That massage opened up the site of infection to the point that it drained and healed, and the surgery proved unnecessary.

 

[Rover_KE]

Re: hangnail or agnail

Besides 'hangnail', some people call it a whitlow.

My family has always called it a stepmother jag, but this appears to be a very localised word for it. This disussion also mentions 'stepmother's blessing' and 'idle-back'.