dig
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English diggen (“to dig”), alteration of Old English dīcian (“to dig a ditch, to mound up earth”) (compare Old English dīcere (“digger”)) from dīc, dīċ (“dike, ditch”) from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz, *dīkiją (“pool, puddle”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰīgʷ-, *dʰeygʷ- (“to stab, dig”). Additionally, Middle English diggen may derive from an unrecorded suffixed variant, *dīcgian. Akin to Danish dige (“to dig, raise a dike”), Swedish dika (“to dig ditches”). Related to Middle French diguer (“to dig”), from Old French dikier, itself a borrowing of the same Germanic root (from Middle Dutch dijc). More at ditch, dike.
Pronunciation
Verb
dig (third-person singular simple present digs, present participle digging, simple past and past participle dug)
- (transitive, intransitive) To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the like. More generally, to make any similar hole by moving material out of the way.
- They dug an eight-foot ditch along the side of the road.
- In the wintertime, heavy truck tires dig into the road, forming potholes.
- If the plane can't pull out of the dive it is in, it'll dig a hole in the ground.
- My seven-year-old son always digs a hole in the middle of his mashed potatoes and fills it with gravy before he starts to eat them.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
- Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter: it was a painful moment for me. ¶ “You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.
- (transitive) To get by digging; to take from the ground; often with up.
- to dig potatoes; to dig up gold
- (mining) To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.
- (US, slang, dated) To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously.
- (Can we date this quote by Paul L. Ford and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Peter dug at his books all the harder.
- (Can we date this quote by Paul L. Ford and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (figurative) To investigate, to research, often followed by out or up.
- to dig up evidence; to dig out the facts
- 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
- Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
- To thrust; to poke.
- He dug an elbow into my ribs and guffawed at his own joke.
- (Can we date this quote by Robynson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?) (More's Utopia)
- You should have seen children […] dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls.
- (volleyball) To defend against an attack hit by the opposing team by successfully passing the ball
Derived terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Noun
dig (plural digs)
- An archeological or paleontological investigation, or the site where such an investigation is taking place.
- (US, colloquial, dated) A plodding and laborious student.
- A thrust; a poke.
- He guffawed and gave me a dig in the ribs after telling his latest joke.
- (UK, dialect, dated) A tool for digging.
- (volleyball) A defensive pass of the ball that has been attacked by the opposing team.
- A cutting, sarcastic remark; a jibe.
- 1838, John Baldwin Buckstone, The Irish Lion. A Farce, in One Act, page 15:
- Buckram ! that's a dig at my trade.
- 2012, Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56, page ccxcix:
- Entitled 'On Several Mistakes of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia', this document is broader, more theoretical and more rambling than the Polish equivalent, identifying deep problems in many spheres. But it does get in a few digs at Slánský, accusing him of having made mistakes in recruitment to the communist party.
- 2013, William T. Vollmann, An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World:
- Unfortunately, the man was too busy, although he said hello to the Young Man politely enough and found the time to make a few digs about the postponement of the elections.
- 2018, Paul Maunder, The Wind At My Back: A Cycling Life:
- In 'Sorted for E's and Whizz', Pulp's Jarvis Cocker wrote about losing an important part of his brain somewhere in a field in Hampshire, and took a dig at the rave scene for being hypocritical – idealistic and friendly when everyone was coming up on their pills, less so when everyone's coming down and you're trying to get a lift home – and essentially meaningless.
Synonyms
- (archaeological investigation): excavation
- (thrust or poke): jab
Translations
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See also
Etymology 2
From African American Vernacular English; due to lack of writing of slave speech, etymology is difficult to trace, but it has been suggested that it is from Wolof dëgg, dëgga (“to understand, to appreciate”).[1] It has also been suggested that it is from Irish dtuig.[2] Others do not propose a distinct etymology, instead considering this a semantic shift of the existing English term (compare dig in/dig into).[3]
Pronunciation
Verb
dig (third-person singular simple present digs, present participle digging, simple past and past participle dug)
- (slang) To understand or show interest in.
- You dig?
- (slang) To appreciate, or like.
- Baby, I dig you.
Translations
Etymology 3
Shortening.
Pronunciation
Noun
dig (uncountable)
- (medicine, colloquial) Digoxin.
- dig toxicity
References
Anagrams
Danish
Pronunciation
Pronoun
dig (nominative du)
- (personal) you (2nd person singular object pronoun, informal)
Usage notes
Also used as reflexive pronoun.
See also
Number | Person | Type | Nominative | Oblique | Possessive | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
common | neuter | plural | |||||
Singular | First | – | jeg | mig | min | mit | mine |
Second | modern / informal | du | dig | din | dit | dine | |
formal | De | Dem | Deres | ||||
Third | masculine (person) | han | ham | hans | |||
feminine (person) | hun | hende | hendes | ||||
common(noun) | den | dens | |||||
neuter(noun) | det | dets | |||||
reflexive | – | sig | sin | sit | sine | ||
Plural | First | modern | vi | os | vores | ||
archaic / formal | vor | vort | vore | ||||
Second | – | I | jer | jeres | |||
Third | – | de | dem | deres | |||
reflexive | – | sig |
Swedish
Alternative forms
- dej (strongly colloquial)
Etymology
From Old Norse þik, from Proto-Germanic *þek, from Proto-Indo-European *te-ge.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
dig
- you (objective case, singular)
- Jag såg dig aldrig där
- I never saw you there
- Jag såg dig aldrig där
- reflexive case of du: compare yourself
- Skulle du vilja lära dig jonglera?
- Would you like to learn how to juggle?
- Skar du dig på kniven?
- Did you cut yourself on the knife?
- Skulle du vilja lära dig jonglera?
Usage notes
Note that some verbs have special senses when used reflexively. For example, do not confuse du lär dig att... ("you learn to...") [reflexive] with jag lär dig att... ("I teach you to...") or du lär dig själv att... ("you teach yourself to..."). Here, lär means teach(es) if it is not reflexive, but learn(s) if it is reflexive. Thus, the separate pronoun "dig själv" is needed when object and subject agree, even though the verb should not be used in the reflexive case.
Also note that in the imperative, when there's usually no explicit subject given, the "själv" is dropped.
Declension
Number | Person | Type | Nominative | Oblique | Possessive | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
common | neuter | plural | |||||
singular | first | — | jag | mig, mej3 | min | mitt | mina |
second | — | du | dig, dej3 | din | ditt | dina | |
third | masculine (person) | han | honom, han2, en5 | hans | |||
feminine (person) | hon | henne, na5 | hennes | ||||
gender-neutral (person)1 | hen | hen, henom7 | hens | ||||
common (noun) | den | den | dess | ||||
neuter (noun) | det | det | dess | ||||
indefinite | man or en4 | en | ens | ||||
reflexive | — | sig, sej3 | sin | sitt | sina | ||
plural | first | — | vi | oss | vår, våran2 | vårt, vårat2 | våra |
second | — | ni | er | er, eran2, ers6 | ert, erat2 | era | |
archaic | I | eder | eder, eders6 | edert | edra | ||
third | — | de, dom3 | dem, dom3 | deras | |||
reflexive | — | sig, sej3 | sin | sitt | sina |
See also
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪɡ
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Mining
- American English
- English slang
- English dated terms
- Requests for date/Paul L. Ford
- Requests for date/Robynson
- en:Volleyball
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English colloquialisms
- British English
- English dialectal terms
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- English terms derived from Wolof
- English terms derived from Irish
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Medicine
- English irregular verbs
- English three-letter words
- Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Danish/aj
- Danish lemmas
- Danish pronouns
- Swedish terms derived from Old Norse
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Swedish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Swedish terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Swedish/ɛj
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish pronouns