Then, in the late 16 th century, an index became an alphabetical list of the contents of a book.

Reading the scroll of the Hebrew Torah with the help of a yad the reader, who declaims the text aloud to the congregation, may hold the yad, or it may be held by a representative of the congregation, a segal, originally a deputy high priest it is not permitted to touch the parchment, which makes one ritually impure and risks damaging either the parchment itself or the ink, which sits on the surface of the vellum a typical yad is about 12 inches long and made of silver

And as the late François Caradec pointed out in his Dictionary of Gestures, the index finger is capable of more than 60 types of gestures, with different meanings in different cultures.įigure 1. Dating from the mid-19 th century, the index finger has also been called the pointer finger. The pointer used by anyone who is reading from the sacred scroll of the Hebrew Torah, known as a yad ( יד ), a hand, is made in the shape of a hand with the index finger extended (Figure 1). Then “index” came to mean anything that pointed, such as the hand of a clock or the gnomon of a sundial, and, because of a fanciful resemblance to the latter, the nose. Later it also came to be called the forefinger, a word that dates from the 15 th century. In English, from the late 14 th century, the index finger was simply called the index or the first finger. In Latin index meant one who reveals something or an informer, a marker or indicator, the title of a book, a summary or digest, and a list or catalogue, all different kinds of pointers. So the Latin digitus index, the index finger, comes from DEIK twice over.

And not forgetting vindictiveness.ĭEIK also gives the Greek word δάκτυλος, a finger, in classical Latin digitus.

DEIK gives us many different words, including deictic proofs and apodictic statements paradigms, lost and found dictation, diction, and dicta addicts and verdicts edicts and interdicts, contradictions, predictions, and jurisdictions benediction, malediction, and valediction abdicate, dedicate, syndicate, and predicate, predicament and preach. The word “index” comes from the IndoEuropean root DEIK, meaning to show or to utter, which I have discussed in detail before. A few weeks ago I discussed finger counting, fingerprints, and the words we use to name the digits of the hand, starting with the thumb.

Index finger