Most Aussies say ‘prawn’ not ‘shrimp’, but they still recognise shrimp’s meaning in the seafood context — how many will recognise the context of ‘shrimp nail’?

In an unappetising association, shrimp nail refers to a stacked vertical curvature of the nail plate, resembling the back of a shrimp.

“It is caused by sequential onychomadesis that occurs before sufficient regeneration of the new nail is completed,” dermatologists explain in BMJ Case Reports.

“Onychomadesis, related to spontaneous arrested growth of the nail matrix, has a multitude of causes, including traumatic insults, systemic insults, local inflammation or infectious involvement of the nail matrix, and drug-induced arrest of nail-matrix growth.”