digit
- digit
\ \ [15] Digit was borrowed from Latin digitus.
\ \ This meant ‘finger or toe’, but its underlying etymological sense is probably ‘pointer’; it appears to come from an Indo-European base *deik-, which also produced Latin dicere ‘say’ (originally ‘point out’), Greek deiknúnai ‘show’, Sanskrit diç- ‘show’, and possibly English toe.
\ \ The word was used in classical times for a measure of length, a ‘finger’s breadth’, but the mathematical sense ‘any of the numbers from 0 to 9’ (originally as counted on the fingers) is a later development. Digitalis [17], the scientific name of the ‘foxglove’, is a modern Latin use of the Latin adjective digitālis ‘of the finger’, perhaps in allusion to the foxglove’s German name fingerhut ‘thimble’, literally ‘finger-hat’.
\ \ Cf.⇒ TOE
Word origins - 2ed.
J. Ayto.
2005.
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Look at other dictionaries:
digit — digit … Dictionnaire des rimes
DIGIT — DIGI Terme utilisé en informatique pour désigner une unité de mémorisation correspondant à un chiffre exprimé dans un système de numération quelconque. Par exemple, dans le système décimal, un digit est l’un quelconque des chiffres de 0 à 9; dans … Encyclopédie Universelle
digit — di‧git [ˈdɪdʒt] noun [countable] one of the written signs that represent the numbers 0 to 9: • Binary code uses the digits 1 and 0. see also double digit ˈcheck ˌdigit COMPUTING a number or series of numbers added to the end of a code (= set of… … Financial and business terms
Digit — may refer to: Digit (anatomy), one of several most distal parts of a limb fingers, thumbs, and toes on hands and feet Numerical digit, as used in mathematics or computer science Hexadecimal, representing a four bit number Dit or digit, synonym of … Wikipedia
digit — DÍGIT, digiţi, s.m. (inform., electron.) Cifră. – Din engl. digit. Trimis de claudia, 13.09.2007. Sursa: DEX 98 dígit s. m., pl. dígiţi Trimis de siveco, 10.08.2004. Sursa: Dicţionar ortografic DIGIT … Dicționar Român
digit — [n1] number Arabic, chiffer, cipher, figure, integer, notation, numeral, symbol, whole number; concepts 765,784 digit [n2] small appendage of animate being claw, extremity, fang, feeler, finger, fork, hook, index finger, phalange, pinkie, pointer … New thesaurus
digit — dig it, v. t. To point at or out with the finger. [R.] [1913 Webster] … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
digit — dig it (d[i^]j [i^]t), n. [L. digitus finger; prob. akin to Gr. da ktylos, of uncertain origin; possibly akin to E. toe. Cf. {Dactyl}.] 1. (Zo[ o]l.) One of the terminal divisions of a limb appendage; a finger or toe. [1913 Webster] The ruminants … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
digit — late 14c., numeral below 10, from L. digitus finger or toe (also with secondary meanings dealing in counting and numerals), related to dicere tell, say, point out (see DICTION (Cf. diction)). Numerical sense is because numerals under 10 were… … Etymology dictionary
digit — n *number, numeral, figure, integer dignify, ennoble, honor, glorify mean to invest a person or thing with something that elevates or uplifts his or its character or raises him or it in human estimation. Dignify distinctively implies the addition … New Dictionary of Synonyms
digit — ► NOUN 1) any of the numerals from 0 to 9, especially when forming part of a number. 2) a finger or thumb. ORIGIN Latin digitus finger, toe ; sense 1 arose from the practice of counting on the fingers … English terms dictionary
