Finger names
When chatting with some Japanese friends today, the subject of finger names came up for some reason - specifically what the different fingers are called in Japanese and English. It took quite a while to establish which finger corresponded to which name - to make this clear, I found a picture of a hand, added labels and uploaded it to my site.
This is what the fingers are called in those languages:
拇指 (boshi) / 親指 (oyayubi) lit. “thumb/parent finger” = thumb
人差し指 (hitosashiyubi) = lit. “person offering finger” = first finger / index finger
中指 (nakayubi) = middle finger
薬指 (kusuriyubi) = lit. “medicine finger” = third finger /ring finger
小指 (koyubi) = lit. “little finger” = fourth finger / little finger / pinky
In Latin the fingers are named thus:
Thumb = Polex
First finger = Demonstratus (pointer)
Second finger = Impudicus (gesticulates)
Third finger = Annularis (ring)
Fourth finger = Auricularis (removing wax from ear)
Their names in Welsh are as follows:
Thumb = bawd
First finger = bys troed (foot finger)
Second finger = bys canol (middle finger)
Third finger = bys y fodrwy (ring finger)
Fourth finger = bys bach (little finger)
and Irish they’re:
Thumb = ordóg
First finger = corrmhéar (odd finger)
Second finger = méar fhada (long finger)
Third finger = méar fáinne (ring finger)
Fourth finger = lúidín
What about in your language?
Polly on 13 Jul 2007 at 10:11 pm #
At the risk of telling you something that we already have in common:
Thumb
Index finger
Middle finger
Ring finger
Pinky
The little “pinky” finger is the one I’m most curious about. Do other English-speakers call it thus?
suchosch on 13 Jul 2007 at 10:48 pm #
in Czech:
1. palec
2. ukazovák/ukazováček - “pointer”
3. prostředník/prostředníček - “middle finger”
4. prsteník/prsteníček - “ring finger”
5. malík/malíček - “little finger”
Faustus on 13 Jul 2007 at 10:48 pm #
In German it´s
Daumen (Thumb)
Zeigefinger (Index finger)
Mittelfinger (Middle finger)
Ringfinger (Ring finger)
Kleiner Finger (Litte finger)
anònim on 13 Jul 2007 at 11:10 pm #
Catalan:
Thumb = Polze
First finger = Índex
Second finger = Cor (heart)
Third finger = Anular (~anell = ring)
Fourth finger = Menovell/Petit (small)
Gunnar on 13 Jul 2007 at 11:35 pm #
In Icelandic it´s
Þumalfingur (Thumb)
Vísifingur (Index finger)
Langatöng (Middle finger)
Baugfingur (Ring finger)
Litli fingur (Little finger)
Martin on 13 Jul 2007 at 11:52 pm #
In Swedish it’s:
Tumme - thumb
Pekfinger - point finger
Långfinger - long finger
Ringfinger - ring ringer
Lillfinger - little finger
Hugo on 14 Jul 2007 at 12:36 am #
In Dutch:
Duim (thumb)
Wijsvinger (pointing finger)
Middelvinger (middle finger)
Ringvinger (ring finger)
Pink (pinky finger)
Toño on 14 Jul 2007 at 2:03 am #
In spanish:
Thumb: Pulgar
Index finger: Índice (index)
Middle finger: Medio / Cordial (middle/cordial - from latin ‘corde’-heart)
Ring finger: Anular (from latin ‘annularis’ - the ring one)
Little finger: Meñique (like, something little)
José San Martin on 14 Jul 2007 at 2:10 am #
In Portuguese:
Thumb: Polegar
Index finger: Indicador (”pointer”)
Middle finger: do Meio (”of the middle”)
Ring finger: anular (”ring”)
Little finger: mínimo (”minimal”)
but we also have affective/informal names for two of them:
Thumb: dedão (”big finger”)
Little finger: mindinho (something probably meaningless + “-inho”, a diminutive suffix)
“mindinho” is much used. Even more than “mínimo”, sometimes.
José San Martin on 14 Jul 2007 at 2:11 am #
Ups, by the way… The comment above is Brazilian Portuguese-related. I don’t know how this is in other Portuguese-speaking countries.
BG on 14 Jul 2007 at 2:58 am #
@Polly: I use pinky, but I also live in California. I think other people in the US do as well, but I don’t know about in other English speaking countries.
Helga on 14 Jul 2007 at 3:01 am #
In Russian:
Bol’shoi (Большой) (Thumb)
Ukazatel’nyi (Указательный) (Index finger)
Srednji (Средний) (Middle finger)
Bezymyannui (Безымянный) (Ring finger)
Mizinec (Мизинец) (Little finger)
TJ on 14 Jul 2007 at 5:11 am #
in Arabic:
Thumb: ib-hám ابهام
Index: sabbánah سبّابة
Middle: wusTa وسطى
Ring: bunSur بنصر
Little: khunSur خنصر
tataaa :)
pittmirg on 14 Jul 2007 at 9:02 am #
OK, in Polish:
Palce: (SG palec)
1) kciuk = thumb
2) wskazujacy (”pointing”)
3) środkowy (”middle”)
4) serdeczny (”cordial”)
5) mały (”little”)
Miro on 14 Jul 2007 at 9:23 am #
In Slovak it is very similar to Czech:
1. palec
2. ukazovák - “pointer”
3. prostredník - “middle finger”
4. prstenník - “ring finger”
5. malíček - “little finger”
Just a matter of interest, “palec” in Czech/Slovak means exclusively thumb (hand or foot), while in Polish it describes any finger.
Simon on 14 Jul 2007 at 10:09 am #
Polly - pinky isn’t used in the UK, as far as I know. We usually call the smallest finger the little finger.
David on 14 Jul 2007 at 10:53 am #
In Australia we say:
1. Thumb
2. Index Finger or just Index
3. Middle Finger, mostly known as “rude” finger
4. Ring Finger
5- Pinky, little finger
Alain Vaillancourt on 14 Jul 2007 at 10:59 am #
In French
Thumb = Le pouce
First finger = L’index
Second finger = Le majeur
Third finger = L’annulaire
Fourth finger = L’auriculaire
Kerry on 14 Jul 2007 at 11:30 am #
In Chinese:
Thumb: 拇指 (As far as I know, 拇 isn’t really used in any other context, but that character is made of the radical that means “hand” and the character that means “mother”.)
Index finger: 食指 “eat finger”
Middle finger: 中指 “middle finger”
Ring finger: 無名指 “no name finger”
Little finger: 尾指 “tail / last finger”
Giovanni on 14 Jul 2007 at 4:02 pm #
Here goes Italian:
Thumb = pollice
First finger = indice
Second finger = medio
Third finger = anulare
Fourth finger = mignolo
Max Pinton on 14 Jul 2007 at 7:45 pm #
A couple small corrections on the Japanese:
ぼし is 拇指, not 母指. As Kerry mentioned, 拇 just means thumb, so “thumb finger.”
小指 is koyubi (no long o).
Wikipedia says that pinky/pinkie is from Dutch. Interesting that American and Scottish English use it, but English English doesn’t.
renato figueiredo on 14 Jul 2007 at 7:52 pm #
José, tu fizeste ótima transcrição dos nomes. Com relação ao “anular” o correto, pelo menos no Brasil é anelar (de anel) e não anular de apagar
José, You made a very good transliteration of the names in Portuguese, with only one mistake the correct, specialy in Brazil is anelar for the third finger (it comes from anel=ring) and not anular, which is a verb meaning cancel.
renato figueiredo on 14 Jul 2007 at 11:49 pm #
José sorry, I were right anular is the correct form. I made a mistake.
José desculpe-me, tu estavas certo, anular é a forma correta eu errei.
Ronald Kyrmse on 14 Jul 2007 at 11:58 pm #
The middle finger is also called _(dedo)_médio_ in Portuguese. And the Latin _impudicus_ does not mean “gesticulator” or anything like it, but rather “indecent” - from giving someone the finger, in mediaeval (if not Roman) times as today! ;-)
Ronald Kyrmse on 15 Jul 2007 at 12:01 am #
JHosé & Renato: Indeed, _anular_ is “related to a ring”, while _anelar_ is “ring-shaped”. ;-)
BG on 15 Jul 2007 at 5:32 am #
It’s interesting how the Latin “polex” seems to become not only the Romance Languages’ word but also the (Western at least) Slavic for thumb (or finger). Sometimes I notice odd connections between Latin words and Slavic words where Germanic is something different:
Novosibirsk - New Sibiria/ novus - new
Of course in this case Germanic isn’t too much different.
Polly on 15 Jul 2007 at 6:10 pm #
How funny that we take our word for the “little finger” from Dutch - Pinky. While the UK, being much closer, doesn’t.
Do they “give the finger” in the UK? i.e. sticking up only the middle finger in a gesture of anger and insult.
Sory to be so scatalogical.
Alon Levy on 16 Jul 2007 at 12:29 am #
In Hebrew, the names are,
Thumb - agudál
Index - etsba
Middle - ama
Ring - qmitsa
Pinky - zéret
The word etsba means finger in general, so the index finger can be referred to as etsba morá, morá meaning pointing. But it’s just as possible to refer to them numerically, as first through fifth finger.
Simon on 16 Jul 2007 at 8:27 am #
Polly - in the UK the equivalent of “giving the finger” is to stick two finger up at someone (the index and middle fingers) - the v for victory sign reversed. The single finger gesture is also used to some extent and understood.
P Terry Hunt on 16 Jul 2007 at 10:12 am #
Interesting that that the third finger appears to be the “ring” finger in most of the Indo-European language examples here (Polish being one exception), but something else in many of the non-IE ones.
I wonder if this indicates something about Proto-IE culture? Since of course languages and cultures can spread independently, there must doubtless be some cross-cultural muddying of the waters.
I love the shameless Latin name Auricularis! Of course, everyone does this, but not all cultures were/are so up front about it.
Polly, the US adoption of the Dutch ‘pink[y]’ is not really surprising: New York was prevously New Amsterdam and Dutch was once its commoner language - a great many place names in the area are of Dutch derivation, though they may have been re-rendered into apparent English form. I know this not from deep linguistic erudition, but from being a great fan of Ed McBain’s ‘87th Precinct’ police-procedural stories. [For the bibliophiles, ‘Ed McBain’ was a pseudonym of Salvatore A Lombino, who later legally changed his name to another of his nommes des plume, Evan Hunter.]
I wonder what other New York / US slang is of Dutch origin?
Terry
Stuart on 16 Jul 2007 at 10:13 am #
Actually, the word pinky is used in England. I generally use it and hear other people use it.
ulas on 16 Jul 2007 at 12:57 pm #
Turkish:
Thumb: Baş parmak (head finger)
Index finger: İşaret parmağı (sign / pointing finger)
Middle Finger: Orta parmak (middle finger)
Ring Finger: Yüzük parmağı (ring finger)
Little finger: Serçe parmağı (sparrow finger)
For pinky usage at USA…might have been the Dutch immigrant influence. The word Santa Claus also comes from Dutch.
Polly on 16 Jul 2007 at 4:22 pm #
@Simon - Thanks again. Now I know how not to get in trouble in the UK. That ‘V’ is like the “Peace” sign, here.
You and Stuart must be in different parts.
@P Terry Hunt and ulas: Good point. I forgot about the Dutch colony of New York.
laci on 16 Jul 2007 at 5:49 pm #
Hungarian:
ujj = finger
hüvelykujj = thumb
mutatóujj = index
középsőujj = middle
gyűrűsujj = ring
kisujj = little
the only finger that has a peculiar name is the thumb, but I don’t know much about it’s etimology
Esperanto:
dikfingro/polekso = thumb
montra-fingro = index
mezfingro = middle
ringa-fingro = ring
etfingro = little
polekso is less used.
Stuart on 17 Jul 2007 at 9:28 am #
Hi Polly
Actually, both Simon and I are from the same town - Brighton, so I think the use of pinky is just down to personal preference. Of the two (pinky v little finger) I would say that the latter is more common but pinky is certainly not unknown.
Benjamin Kite on 18 Jul 2007 at 7:47 pm #
I note that an old Sephardic text, “Meam Loez” refers to each finger having a purpose:
the little finger used for the ear
the ring finger being used for the eyes (esp. inside corner)
the middle finger being used for the nostrils (?)
the index finger used to point
the thumb being used for the jaw/back teeth
Polly on 18 Jul 2007 at 8:34 pm #
Stuart, thanks for the clarification.
Daniel on 25 Jul 2007 at 6:44 pm #
Interesting:
Thumb in Spanish is “pulgar” while inch is “pulgada” which would be similar to something like “thumbed out (distance).” Since it’s an English unit, I imagine ancient Spaniards looked at the length of an inch and thought it was about the size of a thumb and then it worked its way into the language that way. ¿Vale?
Αλέξανδρος on 26 Jul 2007 at 8:46 pm #
Here they are in Greek:
αντίχειρας (= hand-opposite)
δείκτης (= pointer)
μέσος (= middle)
παράμεσος (= beside-middle)
μικρός (= little)
Ilkka on 27 Jul 2007 at 4:21 pm #
And in Finnish:
Thumb - peukalo
Index - etusormi (=front finger)
Middle - keskisormi (=middle finger)
Ring - nimetön (=nameless)
Pinky - pikkurilli (=small rilli)
renato figueiredo on 28 Jul 2007 at 11:03 pm #
This week I found the fingers name in Tetun the language of East Timor, it is very interesting
limafuan-boot thumb
limafuan-hatudu forefinger
limafuan-ki.ik little finger, pinkie
limafuan-klaran middle finger
limanfuan-kadeli ring finger
Robert Eaglestone on 07 Sep 2007 at 8:09 pm #
So where did Dutch ‘pinkje’ come from? Can it be related to PIE *penkweros?
Jens Schultz on 16 Sep 2007 at 7:53 pm #
The danish version:
Thumb - Tommelfinger
Index - Pegefinger
Middle - Langemand (Long man)
Ring - Guldbrand (Gold finger)
Pinky - Lillefinger
Laura Christiensen on 28 Oct 2007 at 10:35 pm #
Portuguese (Brazil & Portugal)
FORMAL:
Thumb = Polex / Polegar
First finger = Index / Indicador, Indigitador
Second finger = Medius / Médio
Third finger = Annularius, Annularis / Anular
Fourth finger = Minimus / Mínimo
INFORMAL:
Thumb = Dedão, Digitão, Positivo e Operante, Legalzin, Certin, Tudo-Certo, Tudo-Bem, Tá-Ok
Index = Apontador, Demonstrador, Ponteiro, Pontudo, Aponta-tudo, Q. I., Q Indica, Índice
Middle = Do Meio, Maior, Feio, Impudico, Pornodígito, Pornô, Obsceno, Rude, De Mostrar, Maioral.
Ring = De Compromisso, De Pôr Anel, Nupcial, De Aliança Matrimonial, Anelar, Esponsal
Pinky = Mindinho, Piquiticu, Menorzin, Miudinho, Miudin, Mignon, Auricular
JOCOSE & PUERILE (SONG)
Thumb = Mata-Insecto, Esmaga-Bicho, Esmaga-Besouro, Mata-Piolho, Mata-Lêndea (Bug Killer, Bug Smasher, Squeezer, Lice Killer)
Index = Fura-Bolo, Tira-Creme, Cutuca-Bolo, Perfura-Gâteau (Cake Piercer, Cream Taker)
Middle = Pai de Todos, Maioral, Frater Maior, Irmão mais velho, Manda-chuva, Chefão (The other fingers Dad, The Big Brother, Big Boss)
Ring = Seu Vizinho, Imediato Vizinho, Mindin Adjacente (Pinky’s Neighbour)
Pinky = Mindinho, Mindin, Frater Menor, Irmão mais Novo, Caçulinha (Pinkie, Little Brother)
Ptguy on 04 Nov 2007 at 5:16 am #
The informal names of the last message are ok just in Brazil. In Portugal we don’t use almost of them.
thumb: polegar
index: indicador
second finger: dedo médio/do meio
third fincer: anelar
fourth finger: mínimo, mindinho
informal: “Dedo mindinho, seu vizinho, pai de todos, fura bolos, mata piolhos”; or then, dedo mindinho (pinky), seu vizinho (ring), pai de todos (middle), fura bolos (index), mata piolhos (thumb)
“Dar dois dedos de conversa”: to chat for a little.
Malaya on 02 Mar 2008 at 10:18 pm #
in Inuktitutt
kuluu - thumb
tikii - index finger
kittittii - middle finger
mikilira - ring finger
ikkiku - baby finger
michael zeide on 04 May 2008 at 4:44 pm #
We are writing a limited edition (300-500 copies) self-published book on the hand and fingers and would like your permission to reproduce your contributions.
Of course, appropriate acknowledgment will be made.