Digital: A Word That Began With Fingers
Digital means representing information as discrete numbers rather than continuous signals. The word comes from digit, and digit meant finger before it meant number.
Digital describes information stored as discrete values rather than as a continuously varying signal. The word traces back to Latin *digitus*, a finger — because fingers were the first counting tools, and the numbers 0 to 9 were named after them.
- Represented as discrete numbers. *A digital recording.*
- Using computer technology. *A digital archive.*
- Showing numerals rather than hands. *A digital clock.*
- Relating to fingers (anatomy). *A digital nerve.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective | digital | Digital media. |
| Noun | digit | A four-digit code. |
| Verb | digitise | Digitise the archive. |
| Noun | digitisation | Mass digitisation. |
| Opposite | analogue | An analogue signal. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The switch to digital broadcasting finished in 2012.In the United Kingdom.
- She works in digital marketing.Digital as shorthand for online.
- Digital natives grew up with the technology.A contested term, but a common one.
Digital or analogue?
- Analogue — a continuous signal that varies like the thing it represents
- Digital — discrete samples, stored as numbers
- A vinyl groove is analogue; a sound file is digital
- Digital copies do not degrade; analogue copies lose quality each generation
- Analogue can capture any value; digital captures values at fixed intervals
From Latin *digitus*, finger or toe. English had *digit* meaning a numeral by the fifteenth century, and *digital* in the computing sense only from the 1940s — one of the fastest promotions any word has had.
Analogue or analog?
Analogue in British English, analog in American. Both are correct in their own variety.
Why are numbers called digits?
Because people counted on their fingers, and Latin digitus means finger. The ten symbols match the ten fingers.