{"id":43942,"date":"2019-01-25T16:02:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=43942"},"modified":"2019-02-01T11:59:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T10:59:33","slug":"jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-naming-the-digits-the-middle-finger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/25\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-naming-the-digits-the-middle-finger\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Naming the digits\u2014the middle finger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jeffrey_aronson\"<\/a>Having previously discussed <\/span>the thumb<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>index finger<\/span><\/a>, I turn to the middle finger.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Greeks called the middle finger \u1f41 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ac\u03ba\u03c4\u03c5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 and likewise the Romans called it digitus medius. I have previously discussed the etymology of the words dactyl and digit, from the IndoEuropean root <\/span>DEIK<\/span><\/a>; \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2 and medius come from the IndoEuropean root MEDHYO, middle, with English derivatives that include mid, midst, amid, midway, middleman, middle-brow, middle-class, midnight, midsummer, and midshipman; mean, median, and mode; medium and media, medial, mediate, and intermediate; medieval, mediocre, mediterranean, and meridian. The mediastinum is in the middle of the chest.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Greek word \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2, middle, gives us about 400 words prefixed with meso- or mes-, including mesencephalon, mesenchyme, mesentery, mesolimbic, and mesothelioma. Such words are typically intermediate, mesolithic between palaeolithic and neolithic, mesocephalic between dolichocephalic and brachicephalic. A meson (originally mesotron) is a subatomic particle, with a mass between those of an electron and a proton.<\/span><\/p>\n

A medalia was a Roman coin worth half a denarius, a coin of little worth. In the 15<\/span>th<\/span> century it was upgraded in French to medaille, a gold coin. Then in the 16<\/span>th<\/span> century it came to mean a commemorative coin or one bearing a devotional image, and hence a medal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mezzo in Italian gives us mezzanine, mezzotint, intermezzo, and mizzen, the middle mast.<\/span><\/p>\n

A mullion is an upright that divides a window in two. It comes, by metathesis, from the Latin word monialis, via the French word meneau, from mene middle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The French, and now also English, word \u201cmilieu\u201d comes from the Latin medius locus, the middle place, which is how Descartes described the physical environment. The French physiologist Claude Bernard (1813\u201378) coined the phrase <\/span>milieu int\u00e9rieur<\/span><\/i>, referring to the physiological mechanisms that maintain phenomena such as temperature and hormone concentrations in equilibrium. Later, in 1926, the American physiologist Walter B Cannon (1871\u20131945) coined the term \u201chomeostasis\u201d to describe such equilibria. The idea implies keeping variables in the middle of a tightly controlled range.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Claude Bernard (\u201cLa fixit\u00e9 du milieu int\u00e9rieur est la condition de la vie libre, ind\u00e9pendante\u201d, <\/span>Le\u00e7ons sur les ph\u00e9nom\u00e8nes de la vie communs aux animaux et aux v\u00e9g\u00e9taux<\/span><\/i>, 1878) and Walter Bradford Cannon (\u201c\u2018homeostasis\u2019 [designates] stability of the organism; \u2018homeostatic conditions\u2019 \u2026 indicate details of the stability\u201d, <\/span>\u00c0 Charles Richet<\/span><\/i>, 1926)<\/span><\/p>\n

The nine realms in Norse mythology were <\/span>called<\/span><\/a> Niflheim, Muspelheim, J\u00f6tunheim, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Helheim, Asgard, and Midgard. Midgard, where mortals lived, was somewhere between Asgard, the home of the aesir, the gods, and Utgard, a stronghold in J\u00f6tunheim, the home of the giants. Gard meant a type of enclosure, like a yard.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Latin the middle finger was also called digitus summus, the tallest finger; the arm span is measured from one tip to the other. It was also called digitus infamis, the disgraceful finger, used to avert the evil eye, or digitus impudicus, the shameless or vulgar finger. because it was widely used, as today, in insulting or vulgar gestures. The Roman phrase \u201cmedium ostendere unguem\u201d (\u201cto show the middle nail\u201d) meant to scorn, as Erasmus told us in his <\/span>Adagia<\/span><\/i><\/a>. The emperor Caligula would proffer his middle finger to be kissed, to embarrass the recipient of the gesture. Other emperors behaved just as badly: in the unreliable <\/span>Life of Antoninus Heliogabalus<\/span><\/i>, \u201cAelius Lampridius\u201d wrote that the emperor \u201cnever refrained from lewd conversation and would make indecent signs with his fingers\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cmiddle finger jerk\u201d, in which the middle finger is pointed upwards, for which there is an <\/span>emoji<\/span><\/a>, is still widely used in many countries, with minor variations, as an insulting or obscene gesture. In France this gesture is ironically called le doigt d\u2019honneur. In Arabic countries the middle finger is extended downwards instead. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMinge\u201d, also spelt \u201cmintch\u201d, a loan-word from Romany, was coyly defined by George Borrow in <\/span>Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany or, English Gypsy Language<\/span><\/i> (1874) as \u201cpudendum muliebre\u201d. It may come from its middling position in the body, although the <\/span>OED<\/span><\/i> declares this to be unlikely, offering as possible alternatives the Latin word mingere, to urinate, and a similar Sanskrit word, and anyway declaring the etymology uncertain. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The shape of the \u201cpudendum muliebre\u201d can be mimicked by extending both middle fingers, bringing them together at the tips, with the other fingers folded in and also touching, forming a triangle. This South American gesture implies that a couple have had sex.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeffrey Aronson<\/strong>\u00a0is a clinical pharmacologist, working in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is also president emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.<\/em><\/p>\n

Competing interests:<\/strong>\u00a0None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having previously discussed the thumb and the index finger, I turn to the middle finger. The Greeks called the middle finger \u1f41 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ac\u03ba\u03c4\u03c5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 and likewise the Romans called it […]<\/p>\n

More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5762],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-aronsons-words"],"yoast_head":"\nJeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Naming the digits\u2014the middle finger - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2019\/01\/25\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-naming-the-digits-the-middle-finger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . 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