Fingers and toes

O

Outsider

Senior Member
Portuguese (Portugal)
English has different words for these two notions. In Portuguese, there is only one, dedos. If we wish to specify that we're talking about toes, we have to say dedos dos pés, literally "foot fingers". How is this in your language?

Thanks in advance.
 
    • German, like English, has two different words:

    toes = Zehen
    fingers = Finger

    In Spanish, as in Portuguese, we have to specify: dedos de los pies.

    In French, you can say 'orteils' or 'doigts de pieds'.
     
    Norwegian:

    Finger: finger (pl. fingre(r)/fingrar - bokmål/nynorsk)
    Toe: tå (pl. tær)

    Russian:

    Finger: палец (pl. палецы)
    Toe: палец ноги (lit. 'foot/leg finger') - (pl. палецы ноги)
     
    Hi,
    Nice question :).

    Dutch has:
    - vingers (fingers)
    - tenen (toes)

    F
     
    In Serbian, there is also just one term: prsti / прсти (sg. prst / прст).

    fingers - prsti na rukama / прсти на рукама
    toes - prsti na nogama / прсти на ногама
    ​
     
    Chinese:
    finger:手指（shou zhi)
    toe:脚趾(jiao zhi)
    手 and 脚 means hand and foot. So...指 and 趾 alone can also stand for the finger and toe, and they sound the same.
     
    Japanese:
    finger: 手指 (te yubi) hand finger
    toe: 足趾 (ashi yubi) foot finger

    Quotidian language rarely makes this disinction as 趾 is used mainly in technical fields such as medicine and anatomy. 指/ゆび (yubi) is generally construed as including toes to the extent that 足指 (ashi yubi) can be seen frequently.

    By the way, in Japanese framework of reference humans are considered to be in possession of 20 yubi, not 10 of them.
     
    Romanian:
    Fingers = degetele de la mâini
    Toes = degetele de la picioare
    deget(sing), degete(pl) = finger/toe
    degetul(the finger), degetele(the fingers)
     
    Flaminius said:
    By the way, in Japanese framework of reference humans are considered to be in possession of 20 yubi, not 10 of them.
    Click to expand...
    That's interesting. Like in Roman languages, Latin seems to use digit for fingers as well as for toes, but specifies 'fingers of the foot' for toes. I can translate those things, but don't remember the original Latin.

    Like other Germanic languages, Swedish makes a difference: (sing/pl) finger/fingrar, tå/tår.

    Also, I think some languages don't make a difference between foot and the lower leg including shin and foot, or hand vs. hand plus lower arm. Semitic experts welcome. Somebody with more time on their hands ;-) start a thread.
     
    Conchita57 said:
    German, like English, has two different words:

    toes = Zehen
    fingers = Finger

    In Spanish, as in Portuguese, we have to specify: dedos de los pies.

    In French, you can say 'orteils' or 'doigts de pieds'.
    Click to expand...

    In French, we call the fingers "les doigts (de la main)".
    Orteils only refers to the toes.
     
    Anns a’ Ghàidhlig nì sinn mar thusa. Bì sinn ag ràdh “òrdag” airson “finger” agus “òrdagan na coise” airson “toe”.
    In Gaelic, we do the same. We say “òrdag” for finger, and “òrdag na coise” for toe.
     
    Abbassupreme said:
    "Angosht" for "finger" in Persian and apparently "panjeh" for "toe". I swear I've heard "angoshte/angoshteye paa" as well, though.
    Click to expand...
    Dear Abbassupreme, we have the same word for both finger and toe: angosht. To specify "toe" we say: angoshte pâ.

    panje derives from panj (five). It means "the five fingers/toes".
     
    In Indonesian we have:
    jari tangan (fingers of hand)
    jari kaki (fingers of foot)
    If someone just says jari it usually means fingers (of the hand).

    You might think that jari-jari is the plural of jari. However, the most common meaning of jari-jari is the radius of a circle. Could also be the spokes of a wheel.
     
    Outsider said:
    English has different words for these two notions. In Portuguese, there is only one, dedos. If we wish to specify that we're talking about toes, we have to say dedos dos pés, literally "foot fingers". How is this in your language?

    Thanks in advance.
    Click to expand...
    - - - -
    Pelo que verifiquei numa pesquisa rápida na internet, apesar de ser considerado um galicismo desnecessário na opinião de muitos, tem aumentado o uso da palavra artelho em português (do fr. orteil) como sinônimo de dedo do pé, junto com o significado original que a palavra tinha na língua, tornozelo.
    BV
     
    Quem não gosta de dedo do pé ou artelho, pode ficar com pododáctilo.
     
    In English there are two different words:
    finger
    toe

    Same in French:
    doigt - finger
    orteil - toe

    In Russian we have the same word. So, if the context doesn't make it clear, we have to specify:
    палец руки /palets ruki/ - finger (literally, hand digit)
    палец ноги /palets nogui/ - toe (foot digit)

    In Spanish it is also seem to be the case:
    dedo - finger
    dedo de pie - toe (foot digit)

    How about your language?

    Moderator note:
    This new thread is now merged to the previous one. Please don't forget to search the forum before opening a new thread. Thanks :)
     
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    In Hebrew it's the same word: אצבעות etsba'ot (pl.)
    Fingers - אצבעות ידיים etsba'ot yada'im.
    Toes - אצבעות רגליים etsba'ot ragla'im.
     
    Same in Catalan: dit /dit/ for both.
    Dit de la mà. /'didde la'ma/ Lit.: "Digit of the hand".
    Dit del peu. /'diddel pEw/ Lit.: "Digit of the foot".
     
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    In Portuguese you say dedo for both finger and toe, but when it's necessary to differentiate, you can say dedo da mão (digit of the hand) e dedo do pé (digit of the foot).
     
    In Greek:
    Both fingers and toes are named the same->δάκτυλο ('ðaktilo, neuter, sing.), δάκτυλα ('ðaktila, neuter, plural), from the ancient δάκτυλος ('ðaktūlŏs, m.).
    Δάκτυλα του χεριού (or της χειρός)->fingers of the hand ('ðaktila tu çer'ʝu, or, tis çi'ros)
    Δάκτυλα του ποδιού (or του ποδός)->"fingers" of the foot ('ðaktila tu poð'ʝu, or, tu po'ðos)

    [ð] is a voiced dental non-sibilant fricative
    [ç] is a voiceless palatal fricative
    [ʝ] is a voiced palatal fricative
     
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    In Hindi, it's very different. All fingers have a different word for it.

    Angoothaa - Toe / Thumb
    Tarjanee - Index Finger
    Madhyamikaa - Middle finger
    Anaamikaa - Ring Finger
    Kanishthaa - Little finger

    The distinction between Hands and Feet is made by adding the prefix "Paer Kaa" before a finger name to indicate referring to a foot finger.
     
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    German differentiates between:

    Finger = finger
    Zehe = toe

    By the way, all Slavic languages (well: I think it's the same for all of them) don't differentiate. In Slovene it is:

    prst = finger
    prst (na nogi) = toe

    (The word "palec" also exists in Slovene but it means "thumb".)
    So even though Slovene makes use of a different word the principle is the same as in Russian.
     
    In Arabic it's the same word for both: إصبع (iSba3), cognate with the Hebrew mentioned above.

    Toes are distinguished specifically by saying إصبع القدم (iSba3 al-Qadam) which means literally "finger of the foot".
     
    In Italian it's the same word, but we specify if we're talking about hands or feet. Here it goes:

    Fingers: dita delle mani
    Toes: dita dei piedi

    And of course every finger and toe has a different name
     
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    Bulgarian: the word is the same - пръст. To avoid ambiguity, sometimes на ръцете for fingers and на краката for toes is added.
     
    Outsider said:
    English has different words for these two notions. In Portuguese, there is only one, dedos. If we wish to specify that we're talking about toes, we have to say dedos dos pés, literally "foot fingers". How is this in your language?
    Click to expand...
    This is what I always thought was the case for Galician too, and all my life I have heard it and used it this way, but the other day I learned that the official standard is:

    Fingers: dedos (nm)
    Toes: dedas. (nf)

    :confused:
     
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