Date: Wed, 02 Mar 94 12:06:52 EST From: TANAKA Tomoyuki To: David.Moser@um.cc.umich.edu cc: John Lucassen , Steve , Keera , Dave Fisher Subject: Re: digital analogues > I notice the Japanese word for thumb, "oya yubi" seems to mean > something like "relative finger" or "intimate finger", at least > based on what that Kanji would mean in Chinese. What does this > mean? Also, why is the word for ringfinger seem to mean > "medicine finger"? What does the word for index finger "hito sa > yubi" suggest? It seems to mean something like "person > send/dispatch finger". the names for fingers in Japanese. OYA-YUBI. the first meaning for OYA is "parent". so it's "parent finger" (because it's big, i guess). HITO-SASI-YUBI. same as "pointing finger". "finger used to point to persons". NAKA-YUBI. middle finger. KUSURI-YUBI. "medicine finger". what i've heard is that this was a finger used to apply medicine (like ointment). I just checked and this finger is called MUMEISI (no-name-finger) in Japanese too. KO-YUBI. the little finger. (incidentally, if you show your little finger to a person as a gesture during a conversation, it means one's lover. an explanation i read (in book by TADA Mititarou) was that this finger is the most adorable, fragile, etc. of your fingers. i see in my dictionary that even the word KO-YUBI can be a slang word for "lover".) is thumb a finger? English-speaking people answer NO, or YES, or "it depends". (the joke about "how many fingers do you see?".) to Japanese people the answer is obviously YES. we call a big toe, e.g. "migi asi no oya yubi". and the little toes similarly, e.g. "migi asi no kusuri yubi". did i tell you about the time, when i was a high school student in California, i had a minor injury and went to the school nurse, and said, "i have a cut on the thumb of my left foot." and had a VERY hard time getting myself understood?