# All Slavic languages: Fingers and toes



## Mac_Linguist

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?


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## Jana337

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".

"Palec", by the way, is thumb.


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## papillon

Jana337 said:


> 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. _

Prst na noze_ 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.


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## Viperski

In Polish we use "_palec" _for both finger and toe.
Separately we name big finger and big toe:
_"kciuk" = "thumb"_
_"paluch" = "big toe"_
We have names for fingers:
_"palec wskazujący" = "pointing finger" - _next to he thumb finger
"_palec środkowy" = "central finger" - _a "f..k off finger"
_"palec serdeczny" = "a cordial finger" - _next one
"_palec mały" = "little or small finger" - _the smallest finger


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## Maroseika

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.

In Russian however there is some "disparity". We can call toe безымянный or указательный (third and forefinger) only jokingly, while большой, мизинец or средний (big, little and middle) are quite normal. The latter however is a bit weird...


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## Irbis

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)


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## jazyk

> 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_.


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## papillon

What about _orteil_?


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## Mac_Linguist

Irbis said:


> 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


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## jazyk

> What about _orteil_?


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


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## Outsider

There was a previous thread about this in Other Languages.


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## Thomas1

Another one one: les doigts de pied / les orteils in Français seulement. 

Tom


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## skoros

It's the same in Serbo-Croatian.
We use the word 'prst' (finger) for both toes and fingers. Unlike the English language, Serbo-Croatian doesn't categorize the thumb as separate from the rest of the fingers. We also make no distinction between arm and hand or leg and foot. Therefore, when we talk about arms and feet we refer to them as hands and legs.


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## Lady Albicocca

jazyk said:


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


In french it _isn't_ technical. If you speak of a "doigt" without specifying (which is quite tedious) that it is a "doigt de pied", nobody has a chance to guess you could be talking about toes. "Orteil" is the normal basic term.


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## jazyk

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.


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## tkekte

Viperski said:


> _"paluch" = "big toe"_


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



			
				Irbis said:
			
		

> mezinec (little finger)


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.


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## lavverats

As I see “prst” (пръст, прст, перст) is used for both finger and toe in all Slavic languages. It is interestingly whether “prst” (пръст, прст, перст) has another meaning as in Bulgarian:
пръст (*m.*) = finger, toe; 
But пръст (*f.*) = soil, earth, dirt
Поздрав


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## micamaca

In Serbo-Croatian individual fingers are: palac (thumb), kažiprist, srednji prst (middle finger), do mali and mali prst (little finger)


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## Sibenik

In the Croatian, it is only PRST.
Thumb is PALAC
The rest is as Jana has well explained.


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## papillon

lavverats said:


> 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.


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## Thomas1

Similarly in Polish, I have never heard prst or something similar sounding. We normaly used palec (u nogi) for a finger and toe.

Tom


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## Viperski

tkekte said:


> 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.


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## slavian1

Thomas1 said:


> Similarly in Polish, I have never heard prst or something similar sounding. We normaly used palec (u nogi) for a finger and toe.
> 
> Tom


 
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.


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## Blacklack

tkekte said:


> Irbis said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> mezinec (little finger)
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
Click to expand...

Ukrainian does have мізинець.


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## lavverats

Good afternoon to all of you!
To: *papillon* and *Thomas1*:
Sorry for the mistake I‘ve made. Let my post be read as “... for the big part of South and West Slavic languages.”. 
If I’m not wrong “перстень” (Russian)is also a widely used derivative from “перст” (asslavian1 mentioned above in Polish).
My 2 cents for fingers’ names in Bulgarian:
Палец = thumb (big toe as well)
Показалец = forefinger
Среден пръст= middle finger
Безименен пръст = fourth finger (literally: no name finger)
Малък пръст or  кутрЕ (also used for puppy) = little finger
Поздрави


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## scythosarmatian

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.


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## imagination

skoros said:


> We also make no distinction between arm and hand or leg and foot. Therefore, when we talk about arms and feet we refer to them as hands and legs.



I wouldn't quite agree...There is no difference between hand and arm, that's true...However, there is a difference between leg and foot: 
leg: noga
foot: stopalo


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## sokol

imagination said:


> I wouldn't quite agree...There is no difference between hand and arm, that's true...However, there is a difference between leg and foot:
> leg: noga
> foot: stopalo



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

however: in _Slovenian _(to my best knowledge, it's not my mother tongue) there really is no difference between arm/hand (roka) and leg/foot (noga) - both times the exact same word; and interestingly, the same is true for Austrian dialects, which seems to derive from Slavic substrate (whereas in Standard German there is _Arm/Hand,_ in Austrian dialect you can also say _Hand _for _Arm _too, although this seems to be restricted to certain contexts; equally Standard German _Bein/Fuss_ in Austrian dialect can be Fuss only, and in this case it would be rather unusual to use _Bein _at all in dialect, if you mean the leg and not the bones)

Cheers, Herman


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## papillon

sokol said:


> 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...


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## imagination

papillon said:


> 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_. D



I agree with this as well....but we can't just say that there is no difference between leg and foot...at least in Serbian....that's what I wanted to say...
So, it's true....we can use _noga_ even if we refer to the foot.... but the real meaning of foot in Serbian is _stopalo_.


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## Mac_Linguist

papillon said:


> 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)


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## sokol

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_

Would it be correct to say in Macedonian (or Serbian/Croatian, for that matter) to say _imam dolge noge_ (or similar) meaning long _legs_?


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## Mac_Linguist

sokol said:


> 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... 



sokol said:


> 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.


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## sokol

Mac_Linguist said:


> Yes. If you wanted to say "I have long legs" you would use _noga_ because "leg" is understood by default.



There you are!
Work around the problem and roll it up from behind, and at last we get somewhere. ;-)

If I say in my (Germanic) dialect 'I have long feet', anyone would understand that I'm meaning the legs. This seems to be true for Macedonian, too.

If I say in my dialect 'I have long hands', at least most people would immediately think that I'm meaning the arms, some (certainly a minority) probably would think I'd mean the hands. But this does not seem to be true for Macedonian, and probably some other slavic languages.

The other way round, it's not so simple, because one could use both the word for arm and hand / foot and leg (of course, only in Slavic languages having words for both concepts; which in Slovenian, for example, don't exist, to my best knowledge: there's only 'roka' and 'noga', I think).


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## rusalka_bg

skoros said:


> It's the same in Serbo-Croatian.
> We use the word 'prst' (finger) for both toes and fingers. Unlike the English language, Serbo-Croatian doesn't categorize the thumb as separate from the rest of the fingers. We also make no distinction between arm and hand or leg and foot. Therefore, when we talk about arms and feet we refer to them as hands and legs.



What do you mean we make no distinction between arm and hand, or leg and foot? And what about *stopalo* and *šaka?* It is a different thing that arm can mean *ruka* and *šaka* as well.


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## MagdaDH

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


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## rusalka_bg

It is interesting to see how the same words have different or slightly different meaning in various Slavic languages (note: i don't speak any other Slavic language aside from Serbian).

In Serbian:

*Ud* is _limb _(not often used in colloquial language)
*Ruka* is _arm, _but it can also be used for _hand_.
*Šaka* is _hand_ and hand only.
*Rame *is _shoulder.
_*Nadlaktica *is _upper arm.
_*Podlaktica *is _forearm._
*Lakat *is _elbow._
*Mišica* is _biceps _and _upper arm _also.
*Dlan* is _palm_.
*Nadlanica* is _back of a hand._
*Prsti *- _digits, _both _fingers _and _toes_, 

*Noga - *_leg_,usage same as in Polish.
*Stopalo* - _foot _and foot only.
*Butina - *_thigh
_*Bedro - *_thigh_, and _hip_
*Natkolenica - *_upper leg
_*Potkolenica *- _lower leg_ and _shin_
*Koleno* - _knee
_*Cevanica, golen, golenjača, gnjat -  *all for _shin_
*List - *_calf
_*Taban* - _sole (of the foot)_; *imati ravne tabane* - to be flat-footed

As for digits, the names are the same for both fingers and toes, except for kažiprst (finger only)*:

**Palac* - _thumb_
*Kažiprst -  *_forefinger _(I don't think there is a specific name for a second toe, maybe just *drugi prst*)
*Srednji prst, srednjak - *_middle finger, third toe_
*Domali prst - *_ring finger, fourth toe
_*Mali prst *- _little finger, fifth toe


_


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## Boniej

slavian1 said:


> 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 "na*parst*ek" which means "thimble".


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## DaniL

To sokol:

In Slovenian we do distinguish between "leg" and "foot", the first being "noga" the second "stopalo". "Stopalo" isn't used as often as "foot" in English, but still, we do differenciate between these two body parts.

To lavverats:

In Slovenian too, "prst" can refer to "soil", not only to "finger".


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## Maroseika

DaniL said:


> In Slovenian too, "prst" can refer to "soil", not only to "finger".



In Russian these 2 words are pronounced differently: перст - finger and персть - dust (obsolete). 
Since the Bulgarian word for the latter is feminine, in antiquity it ended with the vowel (ь). And what gender has the Slovenian word?


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## DaniL

Surprize, surprize, it's feminine, while the gender of "prst" meaning finger/toe is masculine.  But the pronunciation is nevertheless the same.


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