Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Onycha"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Onycha
a nail; claw; hoof, (Heb. sheheleth; Ex. 30:34), a Latin word
applied to the operculum, i.e., the claw or nail of the strombus
or wing-shell, a univalve common in the Red Sea. The opercula of
these shell-fish when burned emit a strong odour "like
castoreum." This was an ingredient in the sacred incense.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Onycha \On"y*cha\, n. [NL., from L. onyx, -ychis, onyx, also, a
kind of mussel, Gr. ?, ?. See {Onyx}.]
1. An ingredient of the Mosaic incense, probably the
operculum of some kind of strombus. --Ex. xxx. 34.
2. The precious stone called onyx. [R.]
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