Etymologically
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digitalis

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 21:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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
  • 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