Etymology

finger

fin·ger
F4I1N1G2E1R1

Today it means: A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other animals. Full definition →

Middle English fynger ← Old English finger ← Proto-West Germanic *fingr
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finger · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*penkʷrós
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*fingraz“finger”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*fingr
  4. Old English · derived fromfinger“finger”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromfynger
  6. English todayfinger

PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English fynger, finger, from Old English finger (“finger”), from Proto-West Germanic *fingr, from Proto-Germanic *fingraz (“finger”), from Proto-Indo-European *penkʷrós, from *pénkʷe (“five”). Cognate with West Frisian finger, German and Low German Finger, Dutch vinger, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish finger, Faroese and Icelandic fingur; see also Old Armenian հինգեր-որդ (hinger-ord, “fifth”). More at five.

Finger · proper noun2

English, German, and Jewish surname, from the noun finger.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.