English
digit
Digit comes from Latin digitus ‘a digit, number’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdigitus‘a digit, number’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500digit
- Englishearliest quotation 1866same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdigitus‘a digit, number’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500digit
- Englishearliest quotation 1866same form
Earliest quotation: 1866, Richard Owen: “The ruminants have the cloven foot, i.e. two hoofed…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- ‘to point out, to show’
teach, index, indicate, toe, indication, predict, dictionary, token, indicator, dictator, addict, indicative, dictate, contradictory, syndicate, contradiction, paradigm, contradict, ditto, predicate, diction, dictum, interdict, syndicalism, tache, ditty, dict, indicia, 43 more
Today it means
noun A position in a sequence of numerals representing a place value in a positional number system.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin digitus / digit