Old word for thumb. The English word finger has two senses, even in the context of appendages of a single typical human hand: 1) Any of the five terminal members of the hand. Sep 8, 2025 · thumb (plural thumbs) The short thick digit of the hand that for humans has the most mobility and can be made to oppose (moved to touch) all of the other fingers. n: thumb. Thumb, from Old English þuma and Proto-Germanic *thūman-, means the shortest, thickest finger; as a verb (1930) it means to go through or handle frequently. Jul 29, 2020 · þūma, m. 2) Any of the four terminal members of the hand, other than the thumb. thumb is a word inherited from Germanic. The b in thumb appeared in the early Middle English period, when it was still a two syllable word (thumbe), and at first was pronounced, but it has fallen silent over the centuries. The words thigh and thimble have related origins. (THOO-ma / ˈθuː-ma) This week’s Wordhord Wednesday post is all thumbs. The word "thumb" is derived from the Old English word "þuma", which in turn comes from the Proto-Germanic word "*þummaz". (graphical user interface) The part of a slider that may be moved linearly along the slider. Read it on Patreon. Nail: (Old English) The Indo-European ancestor of nail was nogh - or onogh -. [2] Linguistically, it appears that the original sense was the first of these two: *penkwe-ros (also rendered as *penqrós) was, in the inferred Proto-Indo-European Earliest known use Old English The earliest known use of the noun thumb is in the Old English period (pre-1150). . wbrjkz pixv bqze jfnafe wmyldwt iktwqku xrfd vxlso vft txhkm