Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

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lǽce-finger

  • noun [ masculine ]
Dictionary links
Grammar
lǽce-finger, es; m.
The leech-finger, the fourth finger [though in one gloss it seems to be the little-finger]
Show examples

  • Þuma

    pollex,

    scytelfinger

    index,

    middelfinger

    medius,

    lǽcefinger

    medicus,

    eárefinger

    auricularius,

    • Wrt. Voc. 71, 30-34
      • .
  • At p. 44,7-8 the names are different:--

    Goldfinger

    medicus vel annularis,

    lǽcefinger

    auricularis,

    • Ælfc. Gl. 73
      • ;
    • Som. 71, 22.

  • Sing on ðíne lǽce-finger paternoster,

    • Lchdm. i. 394, 2.
    [In later times it was the fourth finger e.g. Halliwell in his Dictionary quotes from a MS. of the 15th cent. Ilike a fyngir has a name, als men thaire fyngers calle, The lest fyngir hat litye man, for hit is lest of alle; The next fynger hat leche man, for qwen a leche dos oȝt, With that fynger he tastes all thyng howe that hit is wroȝt.
  • In Prompt. Parv. P. 291 note the reason for the name is given differently. 'The fourth finger was called the leech finger, from the pulsation therein found, and supposed to be in more direct communication with the heart, as in the tract attributed to Joh. de Garlandiâ ... it is said

    'Stat medics

    [medylle fyngure]

    media, medicus

    [leche fyngure]

    jam convenit

    [accordyt]

    egro.'

    See too in the same writer's Dictionarius,
    • Wrt. Voc. p. 121, 35
    'medicus dicitur digitus eo quod illo medici imponunt medicinam.'
Etymology
[Cf.
Icel. læknis-fingr.
]
Linked entries
v.  gold-finger.
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “lǽce-finger.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/20918.

Checked: 1
Full form

Word-wheel

  • lǽce-finger, n.

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