- finger
[finger 词源字典] - finger: [OE] Widespread among the Germanic languages (German, Swedish, and Danish all have finger, and Dutch vinger), finger is not found in any other branch of Indo-European. It is usually referred to a prehistoric Indo-European ancestor *pengkrós ‘number of five’, a derivative (like fist) of *pengke ‘five’.
=> fist, five[finger etymology, finger origin, 英语词源] - finger (n.)
- "terminal or digital member of the hand" (in a restricted sense not including the thumb), Old English finger, fingor "finger," from Proto-Germanic *fingraz (cognates: Old Saxon fingar, Old Frisian finger, Old Norse fingr, Dutch vinger, German Finger, Gothic figgrs "finger"), with no cognates outside Germanic; perhaps connected with PIE *penkwe-, the root meaning "five."
As a unit of measure for liquor and gunshot (late Old English) it represents the breadth of a finger, about three-quarters of an inch. They generally are numbered from the thumb outward, and named index finger, fool's finger, leech- or physic-finger, and ear-finger. - finger (v.)
- early 15c., "to touch or point to with the finger" (but see fingering (n.1) from late 14c.), from finger (n.). Sense of "play upon a musical instrument" is from 1510s. Meaning "touch or take thievishly" is from 1520s. The meaning "identify a criminal" is underworld slang first recorded 1930. Related: Fingered; fingering. Compare Dutch vingeren, German fingern, Swedish fingra, all from their respective nouns.
