digitus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin digitus. Doublet of digit.

Noun

digitus (plural digiti)

(historical) An Ancient Roman unit of length, approximately 0.73 inches.

Latin

digitus manūs (digit of the hand)

Alternative forms

dictus

Etymology

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. 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/, [ˈd̪ɪɡɪt̪ʊs̠]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.d͡ʒi.tus/, [ˈd̪iːd͡ʒit̪us]

Noun

digitus m (genitive digitī); second declension

a finger, toe
(mathematics) a digit
an inch (in ancient times, a 16th part of a Roman foot)
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

Note: the genitive plural digitum is attested in Vitruvius and in a fragment of Varro (quoted by the grammarian Charisius).

Derived terms

computō digitīs
digitābulum
digitālis
digitātus
digitulus
digitus salūtāris
prōferō digitum

Descendants

Eastern Romance
- Aromanian: dzeadzit
- Istro-Romanian: žåžet
- Romanian: deget
Gallo-Italic
- Ligurian: dîo
- Romagnol: dòit
Italo-Dalmatian
- Corsican: ditu
- Dalmatian: detco, detro, declo, det
- Italian: dito
- Sicilian: jìditu, jitu
Old French: doit
- Angevin: daigt
- Lorrain: dogt
- Middle French: doigt
  - French: doigt
    - Haitian Creole: dwèt
- Norman: deigt, dé
- Picard: doét
- Walloon: doet
Old Occitan:
- Catalan: dit
- Occitan: det, dit
Rhaeto-Romance
- Friulian: dêt
- Romansch: det
Sardinian: didu
Venetian: déo
West Iberian
- Aragonese: dido
- Asturian: deu, dedu, didu
- Old Portuguese: dedo
  - Galician: dedo
  - Portuguese: dedo
    - Kabuverdianu: dedu
    - Papiamentu: dede
- Old Spanish: dedo
  - Ladino: dedo
  - Spanish: dedo
→ Catalan: dígit
→ Middle English: digit, digite, digitus
- English: digit
→ Portuguese: dígito
→ Spanish: dígito

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, 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

Middle English

Noun

digitus

Alternative form of digit