Word for fingers and toes

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve noticed that all Slavic languages have only one word to describe both fingers and toes.

I know Russian uses палец ноги (something like «finger of a foot»).

How do you avoid ambiguity in your respective languages?

We have «prst» for both and I’d say that unless the context makes it very clear, we understand «finger» by default and if a toe is meant, it is specified as «prst na noze».

This is analogous to the situation in Russian.

sounds quite humorous to my Russian ears. The word перст (perst) is by now archaic and reserved chiefly for solemn expressions like перст судьбы (the «finger» of fate) and перст Господний (God’s «finger»). I find the idea of finding such a perst on a foot quite refreshing.

In Slovenian:
prst for both (we could clarify with «prst na nogi» or «nožni prst»)

Individul fingers are:
palec (thumb)
kazalec
sredinec
prstanec
mezinec (little finger)

I’d rather say the minority of the PIE languages still use two different terms. From those European I could check — only English, German and French, and all of them apperently use the same stem — toe, Zehe, orteil.

French, like all (?) Romance languages, has only one word for finger/toe: doigt. Our words are derived from Latin digitus.

In Slovenian:
prst for both (we could clarify with «prst na nogi» or «nožni prst»)

Individul fingers are:
palec (thumb)
kazalec
sredinec
prstanec
mezinec (little finger)

Just thought I’d ‘enrich’ the discussion by adding that Macedonian also has прст на нога and ножен прст.

We also use:

• Палец — thumb
• Показалец or кажипрст — index or pointer finger; forefinger
• Среден прст — middle or long finger
  
• Домал прст — ring finger
• Мал прст — little finger; pinkie
  

Good point. But that’s technical. In Portuguese we also have artelho, but only doctors and physical therapists use that word.

What I said is that the word doigt can be used for fingers and toes and there’s not a clear dichotomy as with English fingers and toes. The impression I had when reading some of the posts in this thread is that it was

obligatory

to use orteil in French when a toe was meant, which is not the case. Besides, some other people in the French forum have also expressed their view that orteil is at least a little bit technical, so this could be subjective, as with many other synonyms or near synonyms.

Is that a «normal» word, or slangish? It sounds funny.

Irbis said:

That’s strange, the same word is used in Russian. All the languages that surround Russian don’t have it, but Slovenian does, even though it’s thousands of km away.

As I see “prst” (пръст, прст, перст) is used for both finger and toe in all Slavic languages.

Not all of them. In Russian perst is archaic, and only conserved in a couple of fixed expressions (see post #3). Палец is the standard word in Russian and палець in Ukrainian.

Is that a «normal» word, or slangish? It sounds funny.

That’s strange, the same word is used in Russian. All the languages that surround Russian don’t have it, but Slovenian does, even though it’s thousands of km away.

That’s normal word. «Paluch» means in polish big finger» but it is used for big toe. But «Paluch» is also used as a rude word for «palec» = finger.

Irbis said:

That’s strange, the same word is used in Russian. All the languages that surround Russian don’t have it, but Slovenian does, even though it’s thousands of km away.

Ukrainian does have мізинець.

I’ll sum up the info for Russian:

палец (palets) — finger/toe

большой палец — thumb (both finger/toe)
указательный палец — index finger
средний палец — middle finger (both finger/toe)
безимянный палец — ring finger
мизинец — pinkie (both finger/toe)

Перст or пърст in Old Church Slavonic is now archaic/poetic.

interesting, and me I’ve learned (when studying linguistics) that supposedly in Slavic languages there’s generally no difference between fingers and toes on the one hand and arms and legs on the other — seems our teacher applied a little oversimplification here

I don’t think so. As a general rule, if you say ruka in Russian, you are talking about the whole extremity — from shoulder to the tip of the finger. Similarly, a noga begins at the hip and ends at the toe.

However, if you really want to be precise, you can use more specific words for parts of ruka or noga. For example, stupnia corresponds to the foot. However, if someone steps on your foot —
on nastupil mne na nogu
on nastupil mne na stupniu Correct, but generally not idiomatic

Having said that, I think the discussion of hand/foot is off-topic here since the thread is about fingers. Outsider will probably be along shortly to post the link to the hand/arm and leg/foot threads in the All Languages forum. I think there was one…

I don’t think so. As a general rule, if you say ruka in Russian, you are talking about the whole extremity — from shoulder to the tip of the finger. Similarly, a noga begins at the hip and ends at the toe.

However, if you really want to be precise, you can use more specific words for parts of ruka or noga. For example, stupnia corresponds to the foot. However, if someone steps on your foot —
on nastupil mne na nogu
on nastupil mne na stupniu Correct, but generally not idiomatic

Having said that, I think the discussion of hand/foot is off-topic here since the thread is about fingers. Outsider will probably be along shortly to post the link to the hand/arm and leg/foot threads in the All Languages forum. I think there was one…

This is exactly the same in Macedonian, we have the word стапало. As in Russian, using it in the above way — while still grammatically correct — isn’t all that idiomatic and sounds very strange. Also look at the following expressions:

• ножна сопирачка (foot brake)
• нога за нога (foot by foot)
• палец на нога (hallux, big toe)
• со едната нога в гроб («with one foot in the grave»)

But,

• [хулахопки] без стапала (footless [stockings])
• отисок на стапало (footprint)
• траги од стапала (footsteps)
  

Mac, what about ‘to have long arms/legs’?

Because in Austrian dialect (presumably through Slavic influence) it would be perfectly OK to use the following phrases meaning ‘arms’ and ‘legs’:
— she has long feet (meaning legs): sie hot launge fiass
— he has long hands (meaning arms): er hot launge hend

When I hear the sentence «ona ima duge noge«, I think of an actual leg. But when I hear the sentence «ona ima duge ruke«, I think of hands.

I think I’ll let someone else answer this one…

Would it be correct to say in Macedonian (or Serbian/Croatian, for that matter) to say imam dolge noge (or similar) meaning long legs?

Yes. If you wanted to say «I have long legs» you would use noga because «leg» is understood by default.

In colloquial Polish the difference between arm & hand and leg & foot is often ignored, so reka can be used for hand as well arm; while noga can be used for foot and leg. I would say that the meaning is more universally interchangeable for noga than for reka.

However, there exist specific terms, and they are used in normal speech, not just in medical jargon and the like, so:

reka is hand as well as the whole upper limb, but it will be rarely used for specific parts of it (eg on nie ma rak can mean both he has no arms and he has no hands, but where the specific location is indicated or even just implicit due to the meaning, reka will normally mean hand: skaleczylam sie w reke will mean I cut my hand)

dlon is hand and can be only used for hand, and it’s more strongly associated with the palm than the top (ie skaleczylam sie w dlon is more likely to imply that the cut is on the palm)

ramie is arm and can be used for the whole upper limb as well as its top part and the shoulder; na ramionach means on the shoulderds

przedramie is forearm and can be used just for forearm

noga is leg (the whole of the lower limb) but can be also used for any of the constituent parts, including the foot
udo is thigh, both front an back
lydka is calf, but is commonly used coloquially for the whole lower part of the leg
golen is shin, but is somehow more formal, so often lydka is used instead

I think that in ancient times in Polish language might have been a word similar to «perst». It sounds in such words like pierœcieñ, pierœcionek (a ring). It is only my presumption, because I couldn’t find its etymology.

We also have the word «naparstek» which means «thimble».