An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Daumen

by Friedrich Kluge

Daumen, m., ‘thumb,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and MidLG. dûme, OHG. dûmo, m.; comp. Du. duim, AS. þûma, E. thumb; OIc. þumall, þumalfingr. The same deriv. with the suffix l is seen, but with a change of meaning, however, in AS. þŷmel, E. thimble (Goth. *þûma). This word ‘thumb’ is consequently common to the Teut. group; even the other fingers had each its special name in the OTeut. period. The AS. terms middefinger, midlesta finger, se goldfinger, se lîtla finger, are in complete accord with ModHG. Mittelfinger (middle-finger), Goldfinger (ring-finger), and der kleine Finger (the little-finger), respectively. These terms are not formed, therefore, like Daumen from an old independent stem; in this way Daumen is proved to be primit., though etymologically it is not quite clear; the pre-Teut. form may have been *tûmon, perhaps akin to tŭmeo, ‘to swell’?. In that case Daumen would be equiv. to ‘swollen finger’; comp. also Sans. tumrá-s, as ‘greasy, fat, vigorous,’ and tûtuma-s, ‘strong,’ Zend tûma, ‘strong,’ with Lat. tum-eo. Gr. τυΐλος, τύλη(ū̆), ‘callosity, swelling, knob, hump,’ are based upon a root tū̆, while the Lat. cognates point to tū̆m. The orig. sense of both may have been ‘to swell, be thick.’