From Latin unguis (“nail, claw, hoof”). Doublet of onyx.
unguis (plural ungues or unguises)
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “unguis”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Borrowed from Latin unguis (“nail, claw, hoof”), so-called because of its transparency and its shape, reminiscent of a fingernail.
unguis m (plural unguis)
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).
unguis m (genitive unguis); third declension
Third-declension noun (i-stem, ablative singular in -e or occasionally -ī).
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | unguis | unguēs |
genitive | unguis | unguium |
dative | unguī | unguibus |
accusative | unguem | unguēs unguīs |
ablative | ungue unguī |
unguibus |
vocative | unguis | unguēs |