Hebrew: Etymology of אגודל (thumb)

[clamor]

Hi
I couldn't find the etymology of אֲגוּדָל /(ʔ)agu'dal/, meaning thumb in Hebrew. Is it a Biblical term? Or maybe a loanword? (Warning, folk hypothesis: I found that Hindi has अंगूठा aṅgūṭhā, from Sanskrit, so could it be a loanword from Indo Aryan languages, even though it is very unlikely?)

Thanks

 

[radagasty]

This is pure speculation, but wouldn’t אֲגוּדָל simply represent the û-ā mišqal of the root גדל ‘big’, akin to יוּבַל ‘river’ or סוּגַר ‘collar’, with a prosthetic א? After all, the thumb is the ‘big finger’. The biblical word for ‘thumb’ is בֹּ֫הֶן/בְּהוֹן, or, more specifically, בֹּהֶן יָד.

 

[Abaye]

The etymology of אֲגוּדָל or the variant גּוּדָל is not fully clear. Like other finger names, it's a Mishnaic & Gemaraic word, e.g.

זו זרת, זו קמיצה, זו אמה, זו אצבע, זו גודל

in תלמוד בבלי, מסכת מנחות, דף יא, עמוד א.

שמות האצבעות - האקדמיה ללשון העברית (hebrew-academy.org.il)
אגודל - ויקימילון (wiktionary.org)