Language Fingers
By thomas on Feb 10, 2009 in Languages
What do you call the different fingers in your language? In English we have:
- Thumb
- Index Finger or Pointer Finger
- Middle Finger
- Ring Finger
- Pinky or Little Finger
Japanese fingers are a little different:
- 親指 (oya yubi) – Parent Finger
- 人差し指 (hito sashi yubi) – Person-pointing Finger
- 中指 (naka yubi) – Middle Finger
- 薬指 (kusuri yubi) – Medicine Finger
- 小指 (ko yubi) – Little Finger
According to wikipedia, the finger we know as ring finger was used in the old days in Japan to rub medicine on wounds or dissolve medicine in water. Hence, medicine finger.
Additionally, it is ok in Japanese to call your toes by the same finger names. We don’t do this in English though.
What are the fingers called in your language (or the language you are studying?). And what do they mean? Is it the same as English? Leave a comment and let us know!
Related posts:
Like this post? Give me the Thumbs Up!
I didn’t know these for Spanish, so I looked it up:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedo
1. pulgar (o dedo gordo) – thumb or fat finger
2. índice – index finger
3. corazón (dedo cordial o dedo medio) – heart finger, cordial finger, or middle finger
4. anular – I think this means ring finger. Anillo means ring
5. meñique – I don’t think this translates to anything other than “little finger”
peter | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
Dutch
1. Duim
2. Wijsvinger
3. Middelvinger
4. Ringvinger
5. Pink
But rubbing medicine with your ring finger? Not really comfortable… I do it with my index finder :-).
Ramses | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
Russian:
1. Большой палец (Big finger)
2. Указательный палец (Pointer f.)
3. Средний палец (Middle f.)
4. Безымянный палец (Nameless f.)
5. Мизинец (an Old Russian word meaning ‘younger child’ — I just looked it up, though)
As for the toes, the biggest one can be called ‘большой палец’, just like a thumb, but all the other ones are just nameless ‘пальцы’. Furthermore, any digit is a ‘палец’, be it a thumb, a pinkie or a toe.
sergey | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
Serbian
1. палац – thumb. the word palac was also used as a measurement, close to an inch (e.g. we still say dvanaestopalacno crevo – the twell thumb intestine, or doudenum)
кажипрст – lit. say finger, but I think the кажи is just a shortened version of покажи, which means point, show, so it’s more like “point finger”.
средњи прст – middle finger
домали прст – next-to-the-small finger (aren’t we the creative bunch :), though in the Serbocroatian version of Wikipedia’s entry I found prstenjak, which can be translated as “ring finger”.
мали прст – small finger
Relja Dereta | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply
@Ramses: About “Wijsvinger” – does this have a meaning similar to “pointer finger” or “index finger”? or something else?
I rub medicine with the pointer finger too. There must have been a reason for using the ring finger in Japan though. Maybe it had to do with cleanliness or some kind of ritual. Wikipedia didn’t go into much detail.
thomas | Feb 11, 2009 | Reply
@Thomas
“Wijs” comes from “ik wijs” (I point), from the verb “wijzen” (to point). “Vinger” is just finger. So not that ground breaking; it’s exactly the same as in English :-).
Ramses | Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
nice blogpost idea!
Hungarian is still in the European area, so there’s not much culturally shocking in there:
1. nagyujj / hüvelykujj — big finger / “inch”-finger (it’s not actually inch, it’s the distance that you measure between the thumb and index f.)
2. mutatóujj — pointing finger
3. középsőujj — middle finger
4. gyűrűsujj — ring finger
5. kisujj — little finger
But there is an intereting difference though, regarding body-parts: in English, ‘leg’ and ‘foot’ are separate, leg ends where foot begins. In Hungarian, ‘láb’ (leg) refers to the whole limb, and ‘lábfej’ (leg-head, foot) is included.
In England, they looked at me funny when I said “Wait a moment, I just put my shoes on my legs…” :)
์Nyiti | Feb 15, 2009 | Reply
Also, how do you *count* with your fingers? I noticed this is also different in different areas.
When counting in Hungary, you begin with your thumb, opening them from a closed fist one by one: thumb-index-middle-ring-little.
When you say “I want one,” you stick out your thumb.
“I want two”, it’s thumb and index.
์Nyiti | Feb 15, 2009 | Reply
Speaking of legs and feet, Japanese uses the same (spoken) word for both, “ashi,” but uses different characters for foot (足) and leg (脚). Also, I grew up speaking Tunisian Arabic and never made a distinction between the two, although apparently there is a Modern Standard word for “leg” that I never used.
haitham | Feb 15, 2009 | Reply
In Italian they are pretty much like in Spanish:
1. Pollice (Latin: pollex)
2. Indice (Latin: index)
3. Medio (Latin: medium)
4. Anulare (Latin: anulus = ring)
5. Mignolo (Latin: minimillimus )
Giorgiom | Feb 18, 2009 | Reply
the Norwegian words for the different fingers are very alike to the English ones:
1) tommel(finger) (thumb)
2) pekefinger (index finger) – “pointing finger”
3) langfinger (middle finger) – “long finger”
4) ringfinger (ring fing)
5) lillefinger (pinky/little finger)
I’m also studying French, so I can list those as well:
1) pouce (thumb)
2) index (index finger)
3) majeur/médius (middle)
4) annulaire (ring finger)
5) auriculaire (little finger)
Michael | Feb 24, 2009 | Reply
In Finnish the fingers are
1)peukalo (thumb)
2)etusormi (index finger), “front/fore finger”
3)keskisormi (middle finger), means same in Finnish too
4)nimetön (ring finger), “unnamed”, the left ring finger is occasionally called ‘kultarilli’. Kulta means gold, but I don’t really know what exactly does ‘rilli’ mean
5)pikkusormi(pinky) “little finger” although usually it’s pikkurilli
Usually only the big toe is named and it’s isovarvas (big toe). Another common name for it is pottuvarvas “potato toe”.
Eline | Feb 27, 2009 | Reply
I love this post. Thanks! :-)
Jonathan Mahoney | Mar 5, 2009 | Reply
The Hebrew words are:
1.Thumb – Bo’hen
2.Index Finger or Pointer Finger – Ez’ba
Fingers in Hebrew are Ez’ba’ot
3.Middle Finger – A’ma
4.Ring Finger – Kmi’za
5.Pinky – Zeret
OneHourTranslation | Mar 18, 2009 | Reply
Portuguese:
1. polegar
2. indicador
3. médio
4. anelar
5. dedinho
Jess | Mar 27, 2009 | Reply
Hi, I was seaching finger names in latin and in english, look what I have found! Vauv..
In Turkish language (Türkçe’de):
1. Başparmak – main/head finger
2. İşaret parmağı – pointing finger
3. Orta parmak – middle finger
4. Yüzük parmağı – finger for ring
5. Serçe parmak – sparrow finger (I think there is a relation of “being little”, as the sparrow is relatively a little bird)
Nice to participate to this blog…
Yunus | Sep 27, 2009 | Reply
Can somebody tell me how to call the toes in English please?
Kate Lo | Jan 16, 2010 | Reply
Is Abalone pronounced as [a.ba.lone] or [a.ba.loni]? thanks a million
Kate Lo | Jan 16, 2010 | Reply
@Kate Lo: The big one is called the “big toe”. The little one is called the “pinky” or “little toe”. I don’t think we have names for the other 3.
thomas | Jan 17, 2010 | Reply
Thanks and appreciate your prompt reply Thomas!
Kate Lo | Jan 17, 2010 | Reply
I found some other hebrew words for the fingers, and explanantions:
thumb: אֲגוּדָל (agudal- I think this comes from the word “big” or “grow”)
index finger: הָאֶצְבַּע הַמּוֹרָה (ha’etzbah ha’morah. the teacher finger)
also: הָרוֹמֶזֶת (ha’romezet, the hinter)
middle finger: אמה (‘amah- also a word for cubit, a measurement))
ring finger: קְמִיצָה (kmitzah– possible meaning is a fistful or handful)
pinky: זֶרֶת (zeret– possibly from the word for stranger or outsider)
Aaron | Oct 27, 2010 | Reply
1. Thumb – kciuk
2. Index Finger or Pointer Finger – palec wskazujący
3. Middle Finger – palec środkowy
4. Ring Finger – palec serdeczny
5. Pinky or Little Finger – mały palec
megipoland | Nov 10, 2011 | Reply