English

Noun

digitus ‎(plural digiti)

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

Latin

digitus manūs (digit of the hand)

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.tʊs/

Noun

digitus m ‎(genitive digitī); second declension

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

Inflection

Second declension.

Derived terms

Descendants

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)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “digitus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (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