onychophagia (on-i-ko-FAY-juh, -jee-uh) noun

   The practice of biting one's nails.

[From Greek onycho, onyx, nail + -phagia, eating.]

   "If bad-tasting polish, gloves or fake nails haven't cured your
   onychophagia, these tips may help."
   Maria Liberty, Easy, Essential Nail Care, Better Nutrition for Today's
   Living (Atlanta), Mar 1994.

This week's theme: uncommon words with common suffixes.

............................................................................
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless
substitute for life. -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet
(1850-1894)

Looking for a word previously featured in AWAD? An alphabetical index is
available at http://wordsmith.org/awad/wordlist.html . For the
chronological archives, visit http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives.html .
Send mail to wsmith@wordsmith.org to get archives by email.

Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/onychophagia.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/onychophagia.ram