I might be a bit obsessed with nails as of now. Keratin too. What could be the adjective to the noun ‘nail’? Nail-like is an obvious option, but it is not satisfactory. It doesn’t have a ring to it. I’m looking for a way to differentiate the keratin in my nails from the keratin in my skin, my hair etc. ‘Nail-like keratin’ is not only not sonorous, its also not very accurate. The keratin in my nails is not nail-like, it is a significant part of my nails. Nail-keratin would be more accurate and might be what I go with in the end, but I would like something more. Something like keratinous, keratinochronology. Nailous, no. Naily, no. Or maybe I can shorten Nail-keratin in a more sonorous way. N-kera, maybe. Nail-tin, maybe. N-keratin, maybe. I don’t know. What makes a neologism sound and look ‘right’? I’m not enough of a linguist or writer to answer that question yet. For now I’ll just keep trying.