Etymology

ring finger

Today it means: The finger between the middle finger and the little finger; the "third finger" (UK) or the "fourth finger" (US), especially of the left hand. (The ring finger is the left hand; a ring finger is either hand.) Full definition →

Middle English ring fynger
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromring fynger
  2. English todayring finger

From Middle English ring fynger. So named from the wearing of wedding rings on this finger, originating from medieval belief that a nerve or artery ran from it to the heart.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.