# 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
### Alternative forms

* dictus

### Etymology

Traditionally derived 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 (though De Vaan is skeptical due to the presumed phonetic processes resulting in the change of a ḱ- to a ǵ- having no other examples in Latin). Fingers were thus "pointers, indicators". The "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). The relation to Ancient Greek δᾰ́κτῠλος (dắktŭlos, “finger”) is unclear, particularly as the latter term's phonetics suggest a substrate origin.
Compare similar semantic shift in English in the cognate word teacher (“forefinger, index finger”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈdi.ɡi.tus/, [ˈd̪ɪɡɪt̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /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.
* 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, dzeadit, deadzit, deazit, dezet, dzedzut
** Istro-Romanian: žåžet
** Megleno-Romanian: zeazit, zęzit
** Romanian: deget
* Gallo-Italic
** Ligurian: dîo
** Lombard: did, di
** Piedmontese: di
** Romagnol: dòit
* Italo-Dalmatian
** Corsican: ditu
** Dalmatian: detco, detro, declo, det
** Italian: dito
** Neapolitan: 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
* Venetan: déo
* West Iberian
** Aragonese: dido
** Asturian: deu, dedu, didu
** Mirandese: dedo
** Old Galician-Portuguese: dedo
*** Fala: deu
*** Galician: dedo
*** Portuguese: dedo (see there for further descendants)
** 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
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 170-1

## Middle English
### Noun

digitus
* Alternative form of digit