what is the area on your finger called that's underneath your fingernail?

Question

Its the part that is painful when you break your nail too far back.

Answer 1

Quick
This word for rapid or fast originally had nothing to do with speed. It simply meant "living." Therefore, at one time livestock was called quickstock. Quicksilver, or mercury, was so named because the metallic element moved about freely as if it were alive - living silver! Quicksand, too, shifts its place as if it were living, and a living hedge of plants was called a quick fence in Old English.

Today, the soft, sensitive skin under a fingernail or toenail is still called the "quick," named for its tender tissue. And figuratively, "to cut someone to the quick" alludes to tenderness and sensitivity, as in hurting what is innermost - one's feelings.

Answer 2

The quick...Can be called nail bed as well.but the nail bed is what you see that looks like it is holding your nail there...but under the nail part is the quick though

Answer 3

I don't know the technical term, but I think my family calls it the "quick"... whatever that means.

Answer 4

the nail bed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_(anatomy)

Answer 5

nail bed.