different between leg vs finger

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”), from Proto-Indo-European *(?)lak-, *l?k- (“leg; the main muscle of the arm or leg”).

Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian ???? (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term s?anca (Modern English shank).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /l??/
• (some US dialects) IPA^(key): /le??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

leg (plural legs)

1. A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion.

2. In humans, the lower limb extending from the groin to the ankle.

3. (anatomy) The portion of the lower limb of a human that extends from the knee to the ankle.
4. A part of garment, such as a pair of trousers/pants, that covers a leg.

5. A rod-like protrusion from an inanimate object, supporting it from underneath.

6. (figuratively) Something that supports.

7. A stage of a journey, race etc.

8. (nautical) A distance that a sailing vessel does without changing the sails from one side to the other.
9. (nautical) One side of a multiple-sided (often triangular) course in a sailing race.
10. (sports) A single game or match played in a tournament or other sporting contest.
11. (geometry) One of the two sides of a right triangle that is not the hypotenuse.
12. (geometry) One of the branches of a hyperbola or other curve which extend outward indefinitely.
13. (usually used in plural) The ability of something to persist or succeed over a long period of time.

14. (Britain, slang, archaic) A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg.
15. An extension of a steam boiler downward, in the form of a narrow space between vertical plates, sometimes nearly surrounding the furnace and ash pit, and serving to support the boiler; called also water leg.
16. In a grain elevator, the case containing the lower part of the belt which carries the buckets.
17. (cricket, attributive) Denotes the half of the field on the same side as the batsman's legs; the left side for a right-handed batsman.

    Synonym: on; Antonym: off

18. (telephony) A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line.
19. (electrical) A branch circuit; one phase of a polyphase system.
20. (finance) An underlying instrument of a derivatives strategy.
21. (US, slang, military) An army soldier assigned to a paratrooper unit who has not yet been qualified as a paratrooper.
22. (archaic) A gesture of submission; a bow or curtsey. Chiefly in phrase make a leg.
    • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 74:

      Hickman came in, making his legs, and stroking his cravat and ruffles.

23. (journalism) A column, as a unit of length of text as laid out.
    • 2015, Homer L. Hall, ?Megan Fromm, Aaron Manfull, Student Journalism & Media Literacy (page 266)

      A leg is one column of a story. It has two legs if it is set in two columns and three legs if it is set in three columns. Avoid legs longer than 10 inches and shorter than 1 inch.

Alternative forms

• legge (obsolete)

Synonyms

• (side of a right triangle): cathetus

Derived terms

Translations

See leg/translations § Noun.

See also

Verb

leg (third-person singular simple present legs, present participle legging, simple past and past participle legged)

1. To remove the legs from an animal carcass.
2. To build legs onto a platform or stage for support.
3. To put a series of three or more options strikes into the stock market.
4. To apply force using the leg (as in 'to leg a horse').

Derived terms

• leg it

References

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?d?/
• Homophone: ledge

Noun

leg (plural not attested)

1. Abbreviation of legislature.

2. Abbreviation of legend.

Adjective

leg (not comparable)

1. Abbreviation of legislative.

Anagrams

• ELG, ElG, gel

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• legu

Etymology

From Latin lig?. Compare Romanian lega, leg.

Verb

leg (second-person singular present indicative ledz, third-person singular present indicative leadzi or leadze, second-person plural present indicative ligats, past participle ligatã)

1. I tie, bind.

Related terms

• ligari / ligare
• ligat
• ligãturã
• ligãmintu
• dizleg

See also

• adun
• mpriunedz

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l?j?]
• Homophone: lej
• Rhymes: -aj

Etymology 1

From Old Norse leikr, from Proto-Germanic *laikaz.

Noun

leg c (singular definite legen, plural indefinite lege)

1. play, game
2. (zoology) spawning (fish)

Inflection

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

leg

1. imperative of lege

Dupaningan Agta

Noun

leg

1. neck; throat

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?x/
• Rhymes: -?x

Verb

leg

1. first-person singular present indicative of leggen
2. imperative of leggen

Anagrams

• gel

German

Alternative forms

• lege

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /le?k/

Verb

leg

1. (colloquial) first-person singular present of legen
2. singular imperative of legen
3. (colloquial) first-person singular subjunctive I of legen
4. (colloquial) third-person singular subjunctive I of legen

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l??]
• Hyphenation: leg
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Back-formation from leg- (prefix forming superlative adjectives).

Noun

leg (plural legek)

1. (chiefly in the plural, informal) best, most (record-setting achievement, property or amount)

Declension

Etymology 2

From English leg (“single game or match played in a tournament”).

Noun

leg (plural legek)

1. (darts) leg (single game played in darts)

Declension

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l???/
• Rhymes: -???

Noun

leg n (genitive singular legs, nominative plural leg)

1. uterus

Declension

Derived terms

• leggöng
• legháls
• leghálssýking
• legnám

Lombard

Etymology 1

From legge.

Noun

leg

1. law

Etymology 2

From leggere.

Verb

leg

1. to read

Middle English

Alternative forms

• legge, leggue, leige, lige

Etymology

From Old Norse leggr, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l??/

Noun

leg (plural legges)

1. leg, limb
2. shank, shin
3. leg (cut of meat)
4. leg armour
5. The stem of a wine glass

Descendants

• English: leg
• Scots: leg

References

• “leg, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-05.

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

leg

1. imperative of lege

Old Norse

Noun

leg n

1. burial place

Declension

Derived terms

• legkaup n (“burial fee”)
• legstaðr m (“burial place”)
• legsteinn m (“tombstone”)

References

• leg in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?k/
• Homophone: lek

Noun

leg

1. genitive plural of lega

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [le?]

Verb

leg

1. first-person singular present indicative of lega
2. first-person singular present subjunctive of lega

Swedish

Adjective

leg

1. certified, authorized; indicating an authorized medical doctor, not a quack. Abbreviation of legitimerad.

Noun

leg n

1. (slang) ID card showing the owner's age; abbreviation of legitimation.

Declension

See also

• lägg

Anagrams

• elg

Torres Strait Creole

Etymology

From English leg.

Noun

leg

1. lower leg, foot

Synonyms

• ngar (western dialect)

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse leg.

Noun

leg n (definite leje, dative lejen)

1. afterbirth from calving

Synonyms

• ättföring f
• li n

English

Etymology

From Middle English fynger, finger, from Old English finger (“finger”), from Proto-Germanic *fingraz (“finger”) (compare West Frisian finger, Low German/German Finger, Dutch vinger, Danish finger), from Proto-Indo-European *pénk?rós, *penk?-ros (“fifth”) (compare Old Irish cóicer (“set of five people”), Old Armenian ??????-??? (hinger-ord, “fifth”)), from *pénk?e (“five”). More at five.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f????/
• (General American) enPR: f?ng?-g?r, IPA^(key): /?f????/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /?f????/
• Rhymes: -????(?)
• Hyphenation: fin?ger

Noun

finger (plural fingers)

1. (anatomy) A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb.
   • 1916, The Finger Talk of Chicago's Wheat-Pit, Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 89, p. 81:

     Each finger extended represents one-eighth of a cent. Thus when all four fingers and the thumb are extended, all being spread out from one another, it means five-eighths.
2. (zoology) Similar or similar-looking extremities in other animals, particularly:
   • 1915, Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, The How and Why Library, Life, Section VIII,

     The starfish eats with five fingers.

   1. The lower, smaller segment of an arthropod claw.
   2. One of the supporting structures of wings in birds, bats, etc. evolved from earlier toes or fingers.
   3. One of the slender bony structures before the pectoral fins of gurnards and sea robins (Triglidae).
3. Something similar in shape to the human finger, particularly:
   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, p. 250:

     ...spires whose ‘silent finger points to Heaven’...

   1. (cooking) Finger-shaped pieces of food.
      • 2014, Laurie David, The Family Cooks

        By now, we hope you have said “no” to processed nuggets and fingers. Instead, how about taking some real chicken, tossing it with real eggs, a little tangy mustard, and a crunchy quinoa coating?

   2. (chemistry) A tube extending from a sealed system, or sometimes into one in the case of a cold finger.
      • 1996, Susan Trumbore, Mass Spectrometry of Soils, p. 318:

        An oven is placed over the finger with Co catalyst (oven temperature will depend on whether a quartz or Pyrex finger is used, see Ref. 24), and a cold finger (usually a copper rod immersed in dry ice–isopropanol slurry) is placed on the other tube.

   3. (Britain regional, botany, usually in in the plural, obsolete) Synonym of foxglove (D. purpurea).
4. Something similarly extending, (especially) from a larger body, particularly:

   a finger of land; a finger of smoke

   1. (botany) Various protruding plant structures, as a banana from its hand.
   2. (anatomy, obsolete) A lobe of the liver.
   3. (historical) The teeth parallel to the blade of a scythe, fitted to a wooden frame called a crade.
   4. The projections of a reaper or mower which similarly separate the stalks for cutting.
   5. (nautical) Clipping of finger pier: a shorter, narrower pier projecting from a larger dock.
   6. (aviation) Synonym of jet bridge: the narrow elevated walkway connecting a plane to an airport.
5. Something similar in function or agency to the human finger, (usually) with regard to touching, grasping, or pointing.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Exodus 8:19:

     The Magicians said vnto Pharaoh; This is the finger of God.

   1. (obsolete) Synonym of hand, the part of a clock pointing to the hour, minute, or second.
   2. (US, obsolete slang) A policeman or prison guard.
   3. (US, rare slang) An informer to the police, (especially) one who identifies a criminal during a lineup.
   4. (US, rare slang) A criminal who scouts for prospective victims and targets or who performs reconnaissance before a crime.
   5. (figuratively) That which points; an indicator, as of guilt, blame, or suspicion.

      The finger of suspicion pointed clearly at the hotel manager.

6. (units of measure) Various units of measure based or notionally based on the adult human finger, particularly
   1. (historical) Synonym of digit: former units of measure notionally based on its width but variously standardized, (especially) the English digit of ¹?₁₆ foot (about 1.9 cm).
      • 1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick

        a piece of steel three fingers thick

   2. (historical) A unit of length notionally based on the length of an adult human's middle finger, standardized as 4½ inches (11.43 cm).
   3. (historical) Synonym of digit: ¹?₁₂ the observed diameter of the sun or moon, (especially) with regard to eclipses.
   4. (originally US) An informal measure of alcohol based on its height in a given glass compared to the width of the pourer's fingers while holding it.

      Gimme three fingers of bourbon.

7. (fashion) A part of a glove intended to cover a finger.
8. (informal, obsolete) Skill in the use of the fingers, as in playing upon a musical instrument.
   • 1786, Thomas Busby, Musical Dictionary

     A performer capable of doing justice to rapid or expressive passages, is said to have a good finger

9. (informal, rare) Someone skilled in the use of their fingers, (especially) a pickpocket.
10. (Britain slang) A person.
11. (especially in the phrase 'give someone the finger') An obscene or insulting gesture made by raising one's middle finger towards someone with the palm of one's hand facing inwards.
12. (vulgar) The act of fingering, inserting a finger into someone's vagina or rectum for sexual pleasure.

Synonyms

• (anatomy): See Thesaurus:finger
• (zoology): toe (when on four legs); claw, talon (usually sharp)
• (finger-shaped objects): tendril (in plants)
• (airport walkway): See jet bridge
• (finger width): See digit
• (slang for police informer): See Thesaurus:informant
• (skill with the fingers): fingering technique; touch
• (British slang for person): bloke, lad, boy, guv

Hyponyms

• (anatomy): index finger, forefinger; middle finger; ring finger; little finger, pinkie; thumb, hallux

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: finga

Translations

See finger/translations § Noun.

Verb

finger (third-person singular simple present fingers, present participle fingering, simple past and past participle fingered)

1. (transitive) To identify or point out. Also put the finger on. To report to or identify for the authorities, rat on, rat out, squeal on, tattle on, turn in.
2. (transitive) To poke, probe, feel, or fondle with a finger or fingers.
3. (transitive) To use the fingers to penetrate and sexually stimulate one's own or another person's vagina or anus; to fingerbang
   • 2008, Thomas Wainwright (editor), Erotic Tales, page 56:

     She smiled, a look of amazement on her face, as if thinking that maybe this was the cock that she had been fantasizing about just now, as she fingered herself to a massive, body-engulfing orgasm.

4. (transitive, music) To use specified finger positions in producing notes on a musical instrument.
5. (transitive, music) To provide instructions in written music as to which fingers are to be used to produce particular notes or passages.
6. (transitive, computing) To query (a user's status) using the Finger protocol.
   • 1996, "Yves Bellefeuille", List of useful freeware, comp.archives.msdos.d, Usenet:

     PGP mail welcome (finger me for my key).

7. (obsolete) To steal; to purloin.
8. (transitive, obsolete) To execute, as any delicate work.

Synonyms

• (to identify or point out): inform, grass up, snitch; See also Thesaurus:rat out
• (sexual): fingerbang, fingerfuck

Translations

See also

• artiodactyl
• dactyl
• dactylography
• dactylology
• fist
• macrodactyly
• perissodactyl
• prestidigitation
• pterodactyl

References

• "finger, n., in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Anagrams

• fringe

Danish

Etymology 1

From Old Norse fingr, from Proto-Germanic *fingraz, from Proto-Indo-European *pénk?rós.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fen??r/, [?fe???]

Noun

finger c (singular definite fingeren, plural indefinite fingre)

1. finger

Inflection

Further reading

• finger on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Etymology 2

See fingere (“to simulate”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fen??e?r/, [?fe???e????], [?fe???e???]

Verb

finger or fingér

1. imperative of fingere

Middle English

Noun

finger

1. Alternative form of fynger

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse fingr, from Proto-Germanic *fingraz, from Proto-Indo-European *pénk?rós.

Noun

finger m (definite singular fingeren, indefinite plural fingre or fingrer, definite plural fingrene)

1. (anatomy) a finger

Derived terms

Related terms

• tommel

References

• “finger” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse fingr, from Proto-Germanic *fingraz, from Proto-Indo-European *pénk?rós.

Noun

finger m (definite singular fingeren, indefinite plural fingrar, definite plural fingrane)

1. (anatomy) a finger

Derived terms

Related terms

• tommel

References

• “finger” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fingraz, which is from Proto-Indo-European *pénk?rós, *penk?-ros, a suffixed form of *pénk?e (“five”). Compare Old Frisian finger, Old Saxon fingar, Old High German fingar, Old Norse fingr, Gothic ???????????????????????? (figgrs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fin.?er/, [?fi?.?er]

Noun

finger m

1. finger

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• Middle English: fynger, finger, vinger, fyngir, fyngur, fyngyr, fiyngir, ffynger
  • English: finger
    • Sranan Tongo: finga
  • Scots: finger
  • Yola: vinger

Old Frisian

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fingraz, from Proto-Indo-European *penk?rós.

Noun

finger m

1. finger

Inflection

Descendants

• North Frisian:

  Föhr-Amrum: fanger

• West Frisian: finger

Old Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse fingr, from Proto-Germanic *fingraz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fi???r/

Noun

finger m

1. finger

Declension

or (with neuter gender)

Descendants

• Swedish: finger

Spanish

Etymology

From English finger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fin?e?/, [?f??.?e?]
• Hyphenation: fin?ger

Noun

finger m (plural fingeres)

1. (food) finger
2. (aviation, travel) jet bridge

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish finger, from Old Norse fingr, from Proto-Germanic *fingraz, from Proto-Indo-European *pénk?rós.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f????r/

Noun

finger n or c

1. (anatomy) a finger (the body part)

Declension

Usage notes

The neuter declension is much more common than the common declension.

Derived terms

See also

• hand
• knoge
• nagel
• tumme

References

• finger in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian finger, from Proto-West Germanic *fingr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f???r/

Noun

finger c (plural fingers, diminutive fingerke)

1. finger

Further reading

• “finger”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011