digitate
verb/ˈdɪdʒɪteɪt/
Etymology The adjective is first attested in 1661, the verb in 1657; the adjective was borrowed from Latin digitātus (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), the verb from digitātus, perfect passive participle of digitō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)).
1
Obsolete To point out as with one's finger, indicate.
- The supine resting on Water onely by retention of Air[…]doth digitate a reason.1658, John Robinson, Eudoxa:
2
Anatomy, Biology, Botany, Medicine, Natural sciences, Sciences To spread out from a common point in a finger-like manner.
- But what is most worthy of notice is, that the greater number of muscular fibres arising from the coracoid and radio-ulnar bones form a pectoral muscle, superficial to the other fibres of the great lateral, and digitating with them along the side of the fish opposite the extremities of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth ribs.1857 December 23, John Cleland, “On the Skeleton, Muscles, and Viscera of Malapterurus Beninensis”, in Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, volume 1, Edinburgh, published 1858, page 393:
- Derived terms
- digitation, interdigitate