4 November 2020
A nail-biter can be one of two things, a person who bites their nails or a suspenseful situation or close-run contest, such as a sporting event or a close election. Nail biting has long been recognized as characteristic of nervousness. The earliest English-language mention that I know of is by Francis de Lisle (pseudonym of Louis Régnier de La Planche) wrote about it in a book that was translated into English in 1577:
The thing which most spited the Duke of Guise, was in that he perceiued himselfe bridled by the yelding of New hauen to the Englishmen, which vnto them was graunted vpon sundry not very vnequal conditions, considering the time: & this caused the Cardinal and the rest of his brethren to bite their nailes, seeing newe worke now cut out for them in an other place.
The term nail-biter itself, in its literal sense of a person who habitually engages in the practice dates to at least 1857 when it appears in the pages of the medical journal the Medical Independent:
Few sights are more disgusting than the fingers of a nail-biter of long standing. Nor is its unsightliness the only bad consequence resulting from this nasty habit; the ends of the fingers are kept in a state of constant inflammation, they are tender and unfit for strong grasping of any substance, and the sense of touch is seriously impaired, so as considerably to interfere with manipulations which require the exercise of any delicacy of that sense.
Because it is a nervous habit, some people tend to bite their nails faced with a suspenseful situation. We can see the transition from the literal sense to the figurative one in this passage from the Washington, D. C. Evening Star of 11 October 1939, about a nervous football coach who tends to bite his nails during close games:
The picture of the modern coach as a cold-blooded big businessman, calculating as a pawnbroker, bears no resemblance to the big marine. Larson at a football game is a whirling dervish with the itch. He’s the champion heavyweight nail biter of the East Coast. He takes his football hard. He’s as unorthodox as a fan dancer in red-flannel underwear.
And just three years later we see nail-biter being used to describe a suspenseful radio program. From the Portland Oregonian of 4 December 1942:
When it comes to mystery thrillers, Roberta and Pat, two KGW script writers, pick the CBS “Suspense” show as a real nail-biter. The only trouble is Suspense is interred at 6:30 Tuesdays under Fibber McGee, where few will ever hear it.
While nail biting as a practice dates into antiquity, the term nail-biter is a relatively recent development.
Sources:
A. R. T. “ARTICLE II.—Chapters from an Unpublished Work on Hygiene.” The Medical Independent, 2.6, February 1857, 319. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Grover, John S. (Associated Press). “From Football Traffic Cop to Navy Coach is Larson’s Jump.” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 11 October 1939, A-18. NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Lisle, Francis de (Louis Régnier de La Planche. A Legendarie. London: 1577, sig. I 8v. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
Moyes, William. “Behind the Mike.” The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 4 December 1942, 13. NewsBank: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2003, nail-biter, n., nail, n.