Where does “fingers” come from?
Finger comes from Middle English finger, Old English finger, Proto-Germanic fingraz, and Proto-Indo-European pénkʷe, likely related to the word for five.
fingers (English): plural of finger; Third-person singular simple...
Definitions
- plural of finger; Third-person singular simple...
Ancestry of “fingers”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | finger | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other animals |
| 2 | German | Finger | finger |
| 3 | Middle High German | vinger | finger |
| 4 | Old High German | fingar | finger |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | fingr | finger |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | fingraz | finger |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | penkʷrós | — |