23 Comments
- Большой палец - literally "big finger"
- Указательный палец - literally "index finger"
- Средний палец - literally "middle finger"
- Безымянный палец - literally "nameless finger"
- Мизинец - literally "youngest, smallest" (Old Slavonic)
It's the same in Finnish: nimetön (nameless, you don't even specify it's a finger, sormi).
2015
Most importantly, which finger do Russians use to insult someone... ? ;)
That's pretty much international ;) Most English-speaking countries (US and Canada excluded, I believe) also use the index and middle finger together, separated somewhat, rather like a scissors, to convey the same meaning.
With the palm facing inwards, that is. . . Otherwise it's the peace sign haha
Ha! In Sweden, we call the nameless finger ringfingret, i.e. the ring finger, because we always have our wedding rings on that one. Do Russian also wear their wedding rings on their безымянные палцы (на своих безымянных палцах)?
Same in Spanish, "dedo anular" :) (for/with the ring). In Spanish almost exact coincidence with Russian but the fourth, and coincide with Swedish on it. So cool. "Dedo gordo" literally means fat finger, but it's pretty close. Index, middle and smallest exact matches.
So the shortest finger is called big. Is it used ironically, or because it's thicker than the other fingers?
obviously because it's thicker, in the same way your big toe is the fat one. It says big, not long. Besides, your little finger is shorter than your thumb.
No. It's very annoying. Perhaps Americans don't say this? I don't know. I reported, anyway, because it seems totally fine.
I put "My big toe hurts", which.. as far as I'm aware is correct in the right context. I know it wanted thumb here, but what if I just stubbed my big toe, surely this is a reasonable translation.
If большой палец is specifically thumb, I would like to have seen that earlier, before running into it during a review exercise... I'd also thought "big toe" was a more likely translation. Much as I appreciate this course, it sometimes seems a little disorganized...
How do you say "big toe"?
