digitus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin digitus.

Noun

digitus (plural digiti)

1. An Ancient Roman unit of length, approximately 0.73 inches.

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Latin

digitus manūs (digit of the hand)

Alternative forms

• dictus

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *deyǵ- (“to show, point out, pronounce solemnly”), variant of the root *deyḱ- that also gave Latin dīcō (“I say, speak talk”) and English toe. Fingers were thus "pointers, indicators". Digit sense comes from the fact that they were used for counting up to ten.

Indo-European cognates include Sanskrit दिशति (diśáti, “to show, point out”), Ancient Greek δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “to show”), δίκη (díkē, “manner, custom”), Old English tǣċan (“to show, point out”) (English teach) and tācen (English token).

Compare similar semantic shift in English in the cognate word teacher (“forefinger, index finger”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.ɡi.tus/, [ˈd̪ɪɡɪt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.d͡ʒi.tus/, [ˈd̪iːd͡ʒit̪us]

• Audio (Classical):

  (file)

Noun

digitus m (genitive digitī); second declension

1. a finger, toe, digit
2. a twig

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	digitus	digitī
Genitive	digitī	digitōrum
Dative	digitō	digitīs
Accusative	digitum	digitōs
Ablative	digitō	digitīs
Vocative	digite	digitī

Derived terms

• computō digitīs
• digitābulum
• digitālis

• digitātus
• digitulus
• digitus salūtāris
• prōferō digitum

Descendants

• Aragonese: dido
• Aromanian: dzeadzit
• Asturian: deu, didu
• Catalan: dit
• Corsican: ditu
• Dalmatian: detco
• → English: digit
• Friulian: dêt
• → Interlingua: digito

• Istro-Romanian: žåžet
• Italian: dito
• Ladino: dedo
• Ligurian: dîo
• Old French: doit
  • Middle French: doigt
    • French: doigt
    • Walloon: doet
    • Haitian Creole: dwèt
• Occitan: det, dit
• Old Galician-Portuguese: dedo
  • Galician: dedo
  • Portuguese: dedo, dígito (borrowing)
  • Kabuverdianu: dedo
• Papiamentu: dede
• Romagnolo: dòit

• Romanian: deget
• Romansch: det
• Sardinian: didu
• Sicilian: jiritu, jiditu, jitu
• Old Spanish: dedo
  • Spanish: dedo, dígito (borrowing)
• Venetian: déo

References

• “digitus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “digitus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• digitus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• digitus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to touch with the fingertips: extremis digitis aliquid attingere
    
• “digitus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “digitus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

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Middle English

Noun

digitus

1. Alternative form of digit