ungula

Borrowed from Latin ungula (“claw, hoof”), from unguis (“nail, claw, hoof”).

ungula (plural ungulae)

1. A hoof, claw, or talon.
2. (geometry) A section of a cylinder, cone, or other solid of revolution, cut off by a plane oblique to the base; so called from its resemblance to the hoof of a horse.
3. (botany) Alternative form of unguis.
4. A surgical instrument for use in removing a dead fetus.

• ungual

ungula (plural ungulas)

1. nail, ungula

Seemingly from unguis m (“fingernail, talon”) +‎ -ula (diminutive suffix), although it is not clearly diminutive in sense and its formation is irregular (a Latin diminutive normally matches the gender of the base noun). It may actually be inherited from a Proto-Indo-European formation such as *h₃n̥gʰ-l-h₂^[1] that was created by attaching an l-suffix to this root early on, before Latin or Proto-Italic; compare Proto-Germanic *naglaz and other cognates listed at *h₃nṓgʰs.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈʊŋ.ɡʊ.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈuŋ.ɡu.la]

ungula f (genitive ungulae); first declension

1. hoof, claw
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 8.596:

     quadripedante putrem sonitū quatit ungula campum

     Then struck the hoofs of the steeds on the ground with a four-footed trampling.

2. (figuratively) a horse
3. an aromatic spice

First-declension noun.

• ungulātus

• unguis

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