digital

Where does the word "digital" come from? It comes from Latin digitus, and was adopted directly into English (1650s).

Digital’s story begins in Latin: digitus meant “a finger, a toe.” A finger or toe, the earliest tool for counting. It reached English by 1650s as digital. Narrowed from fingers to numerical counting, later discrete electronic signals. Today, digital means relating to data represented as discrete numerical values, as in computing.

1. Stage 1 · Latin · ancient digitus "a finger, a toe", a finger or toe, the earliest tool for counting.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1650s digital "relating to discrete numerical values, as in computing", narrowed from fingers to numerical counting, later discrete electronic signals.