digitus

Etymology
Borrowed from. .

Noun

 * 1)  An Ancient Roman unit of length, approximately 0.73 inches.

Etymology
Traditionally derived from, from , variant of the root that also gave Latin  and English  (though De Vaan is skeptical due to the presumed phonetic processes resulting in the change of a ḱ- to a ǵ- having no other examples in Latin). Fingers were thus "pointers, indicators". The "digit" sense comes from the fact that they were used for counting up to ten.

Indo-European cognates include Sanskrit, 🇨🇬, , Old English (English ) and  (English ). The relation to 🇨🇬 is unclear, particularly as the latter term's phonetics suggest a substrate origin.

Compare similar semantic shift in English in the cognate word.

Noun

 * 1) a finger, toe
 * 2)  a digit
 * 3) an inch
 * 4) a twig

Declension

 * Note: the genitive plural is attested in Vitruvius and in a fragment of Varro (quoted by the grammarian Charisius).

Descendants

 * Eastern Romance
 * Gallo-Italic
 * Italo-Dalmatian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * Gallo-Italic
 * Italo-Dalmatian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * Italo-Dalmatian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * Rhaeto-Romance
 * West Iberian
 * West Iberian
 * West Iberian
 * West Iberian
 * West Iberian