Etymologically
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dito

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Pronunciation

Forms

dito m (plural (considered individually) diti m or (collectively) dita f, diminutive (usually in reference to children) ditìno, augmentative ditóne (“big toe”), pejorative ditàccio)[1] Old forms include Old Italian deto, Old Italian dedo and Old Italian dido, with the feminine plurals Old Italian dite and Old Italian deta.[2][3] Northern dialects have forms such as Venetian deo and Triestine dedo.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ditus, a spoken form of Latin digitus (“finger, toe”).[5][6][4] The LEI posits the shortened form already for Late Latin, and Devoto explains it by the loss of the /g/ between vowels before a front vowel, which happened before the loss of the inner vowel.[4][7] The feminine plural in ⟨-a⟩ goes back to the Late Latin neuter plural digita.[8][9]

The word is found across Romance: French doigt, Occitan det, Catalan dit, Spanish dedo, Portuguese dedo, Sardinian didu and Romanian deget.[10][8] DEI notes that the forms with /i/ belong to Tuscany, Emilia, Lombardy and Piedmont, while the Veneto, Umbria, Lazio and the south have the regular /e/ from the short Latin vowel; in the south a form with the consonants swapped, *giditus, underlies Sicilian iditu and Neapolitan jirete.[9][8]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.[5][11] Its meaning makes a link with dīcō (“to say”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”) attractive, the finger being the “pointer”, and Nocentini and Wiktionary accept it, with the voiced /g/ explained as a variant root *deyǵ-.[10][1] De Vaan doubts this, because such a change of voicing has no parallel in Latin and no root of that shape is securely attested.[11] DEI thinks a connection with Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”) could only be explained through a Mediterranean substrate.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's earliest record is the Monza Glossary of the 10th century.[2] DELI dates the sense “measure the width of a finger” before 1292, in Bono Giamboni, and the anatomical sense, one of the jointed parts in which the hands and feet end, to Dante's Convivio (1304–1308).[5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for the index finger in particular, as Dante does in Purgatorio when a soul calls out to him “pointing her finger” (drizzando 'l dito), and in the phrase dito di Dio “finger of God”, translating the biblical digitus Dei for divine power.[2][12][9] Dito grosso for the thumb or the big toe goes back to the 14th century.[10][9]

The sense “finger of a glove” is dated 1561 (Alessandro Citolini).[5] Many figurative phrases are built on the word: legarsela al dito “to bear a grudge”, which Tommaseo saw as a biblical image, mettere il dito sulla piaga “to touch the sore point”, toccare il cielo con un dito “to be overjoyed” and mordersi le dita “to regret bitterly”.[5][13][12] In music, dito entered the language of violin technique by 1782.[14]

Timeline

  • 10th century – The word appears in the Monza Glossary.[2]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses dito as a measure of width.[5]
  • 1304–1308 – Dante uses it for the finger in the Convivio.[5]
  • 14th century – Dito grosso “thumb, big toe” is recorded.[10][9]
  • 1561 – Alessandro Citolini uses it for the finger of a glove.[5]
  • 1768 – Ditata “fingermark” is recorded.[5]
  • 1892 – Diteggiare and diteggiatura (musical fingering) are recorded.[5][10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. finger or toe: each of the jointed parts in which the hands and feet end; also the digits of some animals: Si è tagliato un dito pelando le patate.[6][15][16]
  2. The index finger in particular, used to point or threaten: Mi indicò la strada col dito.[6][12]
  3. The part of a glove that covers a finger.[6][16][13]
  4. A finger's width, used as a small measure: Versami solo un dito di latte.[6][16][12]
  5. (historical) An old unit of length, a twenty-fourth of a cubit.[6][13]

Word family

  • ditale
  • ditalino
  • ditata
  • diteggiare
  • diteggiatura
  • ditola
  • additare
  • ditone
  • infradito
  • digitale
  • digitare
  • digitato
  • Latin digitus

Usage notes

The plural is usually the feminine le dita when the fingers are thought of together, and the masculine i diti when they are counted one by one or named.[13][16][1] Dito grosso is the colloquial name for the thumb or the big toe, and dito piccolo for the little finger.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 20, 403
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1362
  10. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  16. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse