digitus
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Latin digitus. Doublet of digit.
Noun[edit]
digitus (plural digiti)
- (historical) An Ancient Roman unit of length, approximately 0.73 inches.
Latin[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Traditionally derived from Proto-Italic *digitos, 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 (though De Vaan is skeptical due to the presumed phonetic processes resulting in the change of a ḱ- to a ǵ- having no other examples in Latin).[1] Fingers were thus "pointers, indicators". The "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[edit]
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈdi.ɡi.tus/, [ˈd̪ɪɡɪt̪ʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈdi.d͡ʒi.tus/, [ˈd̪iːd͡ʒit̪us]
Noun[edit]
digitus m (genitive digitī); second declension
Declension[edit]
Second-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | digitus | digitī |
| Genitive | digitī | digitōrum |
| Dative | digitō | digitīs |
| Accusative | digitum | digitōs |
| Ablative | digitō | digitīs |
| Vocative | digite | digitī |
- Note: the genitive plural digitum is attested in Vitruvius and in a fragment of Varro (quoted by the grammarian Charisius).
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- “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
- 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
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 170-1
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
digitus
- Alternative form of digit
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with historical senses
- Latin terms inherited from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin 3-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin second declension nouns
- Latin masculine nouns in the second declension
- Latin masculine nouns
- la:Mathematics
- Latin words in Meissner and Auden's phrasebook
- la:Anatomy
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns