digitus

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin digitus.

Noun

digitus (plural digiti)

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

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) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.ɡi.tus/, [ˈdɪ.ɡɪ.tʊs]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.d͡ʒi.tus/, [ˈdiː.d͡ʒi.tus]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Noun

digitus m (genitive digitī); second declension

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

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, 1883–1887)
• digitus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, 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