February 03, 2010, 06:01
GeoffDigit
Having had the error of my peevologist tendencies shown to me recently, I must frame this question carefully: Does "digit" still have anything to do with fingers and toes? How did it come to mean computers, photographs, etc? I can't help it; when I hear the term, "digital photography, I think of photographs of someone's fingers and toes.
February 03, 2010, 06:25
zmježd Does "digit" still have anything to do with fingers and toes?This meaning still ties with the one for 'a number symbol', e.g., in the Arabic numbering system (base-10), the digits are 0 – 9; in hexadecimal (base-16) 0 – F. In Latin the primary meaning of
digitus was 'finger', and that was extended to 'toe'. An alternative meaning was a unit of measurement, roughly a Roman inch, ca.3/4", 16 to the foot (
pes). Concerning its adjectival form,
digital started out meaning values stored on some recording medium as discrete numbers. Then there's
digitalis 'foxglove' (cf. German
Fingerhut, literally, 'finger' + 'hat'), whence the medicine.
As for your peeving ways, Geoff, I wouldn't worry about it. We, all of us, peeve from time to time. My pet peeve is peevologists.
February 03, 2010, 21:34
KallehThat reminds me of one of my favorite words,
prestidigitator, which we've discussed
here before.
[BTW, in rereading that old thread, I see that I
used to like etymology.com. I don't anymore because I feel that they just copy from the OED.]