unguis

From Latin unguis (“nail, claw, hoof”). Doublet of onyx.

unguis (plural ungues or unguises)

1. (zoology) The nail, claw, talon, or hoof of a finger, toe, or other appendage.
2. One of the terminal hooks on the foot of an insect.
3. (botany) The slender base of a petal in some flowers; a claw; an ungula.
4. (historical) An old measure equal to the length of the nail of the little finger.

• subunguis

Borrowed from Latin unguis (“nail, claw, hoof”), so-called because of its transparency and its shape, reminiscent of a fingernail.

• IPA^(key): /ɔ̃.ɡɥis/

unguis m (plural unguis)

1. (anatomy) The smallest of the facial bones, located at the inner wall of the orbit.

• “unguis”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Proto-Italic *ungus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃negʰ- (“nail”).^[1] Cognates include Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux), Old Irish inga, Sanskrit नख (nakhá, “claw, nail”), Old Armenian եղունգն (ełungn), Old Church Slavonic ногъть (nogŭtĭ), Lithuanian nagas, Persian ناخن (nâxon), Albanian nyell, and Old English næġl (English nail).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈun.ɡʷis/, [ˈʊŋɡʷɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈun.ɡwis/, [ˈuŋɡwis]

unguis m (genitive unguis); third declension

1. (anatomy) fingernail, toenail
2. talon, claw
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.257:

     Iamque satur nigrīs longum rapit unguibus hydrum

     And now, having eaten his fill [of figs], [the raven] snatches up a long water-snake in his black talons.

3. hoof

Third-declension noun (i-stem, ablative singular in -e or occasionally -ī).

• ad unguem
• in unguem
• unguicula
• ungula

• >? Sicilian: ugnu
• → English: unguis
• → French: unguis

• “unguis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “unguis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• unguis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.