digitalis

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [dɪ.ɡɪˈtaː.lɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [di.d͡ʒiˈtaː.lis]^[1]

Forms

digitālis (neuter digitāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin digitus (“finger”) + -ālis.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius uses it of channels and an opening a finger's breadth wide.^[3][4] Köbler dates Vitruvius about 84–25 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant measuring a finger's breadth or thickness, as in Pliny.^[2][6][4] A gloss gives the neuter digitāle for a finger-stall or glove finger.^[4]

In medieval Latin it was a finger ring and a glove, and was used in music and geometry.^[7][5][8] It survives in Italian ditale, French dé and Spanish dedal “thimble”.^[1] English digital is recorded in the mid-15th century of numbers below ten, counted on the fingers, and in the 1650s of the fingers.^[9] The plant name digitalis “foxglove” was coined in the 1660s as a translation of German Fingerhut “thimble”.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a finger's breadth.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of thickness.^[6][5]
• mid-11th century – Ruodlieb uses it of a finger ring.^[5]
• mid-15th century – English digital is recorded.^[9]
• 1660s – The plant name digitalis is coined.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a finger's breadth or thickness.^[2][1]
2. Of or belonging to the finger.^[6][1]

Noun

1. digitāle, a finger-stall.^[4]
2. (Medieval Latin) A finger ring; a glove.^[7][5]

Word family

• interdigitalia
• sēmidigitālis

Related words

• digitus
• English digital
• English digitalis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com