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Posted: **Tue Feb 13, 2007 1:45 pm**

lu·nu·la (lny-l)
n. pl. lu·nu·lae (-l)
A small crescent-shaped structure or marking, especially the white area at the base of a fingernail that resembles a half-moon.

[New Latin lnula, from Latin, crescent-shaped ornament, diminutive of lna, moon; see leuk- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

mark will-probably-not-have-much-use-for-this Bailey

Posted: **Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:54 pm**

especially the white area at the base of a fingernail that resembles a half-moon.

At last I know what this is called. But how do I work this into a conversation?

Posted: **Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:24 pm**

especially the white area at the base of a fingernail that resembles a half-moon.
At last I know what this is called. But how do I work this into a conversation?

The interview candidate was so nervous, he chewed his fingernails all the way down to the lunulae.

Harder to find a rhyme.

-- PW