digitus

Borrowed from Latin digitus. Doublet of digit.

digitus (plural digiti)

1. (historical) An Ancient Roman unit of length, approximately 0.73 inches.

• dictus

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 (“to say, speak talk”) and English toe; fingers were thus "pointers" or "indicators". De Vaan, however, is skeptical, as no other term exhibits a comparable change from *-ḱ- to a *-ǵ-.^[1] The "number" sense comes from the fact that fingers were used for counting up to ten.

Indo-European cognates include Sanskrit दिशति (diśáti, “to show, point out”), Ancient Greek δείκνῡμῐ (deíknūmĭ, “to show”), δῐ́κη (dĭ́kē, “manner, custom”), Old English tǣċan (“to show; to point out”, English teach) and tācn (“sign; token”, English token); compare the similar semantic shift in English teacher (“forefinger, index finger”). The relation to Ancient Greek δᾰ́κτῠλος (dắktŭlos, “finger”) is unclear, particularly as the latter term's phonetics suggest a substrate origin.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈdɪ.ɡɪ.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈdiː.d͡ʒi.tus]

digitus m (genitive digitī); second declension

1. a finger, toe
2. (mathematics) a digit, number
3. an inch (in ancient times, a 16th part of a Roman foot)
4. a twig

Second-declension noun (alternative genitive plural in -um).

• “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, 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^[1], 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

digitus

1. alternative form of digit