pollex

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pollex.

Noun

pollex (plural pollices or (rare) pollexes)

1. The thumb; the first, or preaxial, digit of the forelimb, corresponding to the hallux in the hind limb. In birds, the pollex is the joint which bears the alula or bastard wing.
   • 1949 April, Harry Holbert Turney-High, “Distinguishing Characteristics of the Primates”, in General Anthropology, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, part 1 (Basic Concepts and Data), section 2 (The Organic Man), page 28:

     The Simiidae have a man-like appearance. They possess neither tails nor bestial cheek pouches. Their arms are longer than their legs, and they have opposable pollexes and a broad sternum.

   • 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 2, page 161:

     We came to know the curious roadside species, Hitchhiking Man, Homo pollex of science, with all its many sub-species and forms: […]

   • 1977 June 26, Chris Peck, “Purple thumbs tell of tool machines”, in Times-News, 72nd year, number 252, Twin Falls, Ida., page 5, column 1:

     Then there are the amateur carpenters. Poor, misguided devils. They bring purple thumbs back to work. Purple pollexes because they smashed the daylights out of their digits trying to drive four penny finishing nails into flimsy bits of moulding.

   • 1996 June, Hsiao-Wei Kao, Ernest S. Chang, “Homeotic Transformation of Crab Walking Leg into Claw by Autotransplantation of Claw Tissue”, in Michael J. Greenberg, editor, The Biological Bulletin, volume 190, number 3, Woods Hole, Mass.: Marine Biological Laboratory, →ISSN, page 317, column 2:

     Among the crabs with abnormal legs, one leg had two pollexes and three dactyls (Fig. 4B), one had a Y-shaped dactyl (Fig. 4C), two had clawlike dactyls (Fig. 4D), and the rest of the abnormal legs had a curved structure.

Derived terms

• pollical
• pollicate

See also

• hallux

References

• “pollex”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Etymology

Of uncertain origin.

Traditionally connected to Proto-Slavic *palьcь (“thumb”), with contamination from Latin polleō (“to be strong”) (hence pollex, not *pōlex). However, de Vaan is unconvinced, and instead prefers Meier-Brügger's derivation from a Proto-Italic *por-likʰ-s (“which is licked over”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“through”) + *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”), with the second syllable in the nominative singular becoming -lex based on the model of other body parts, such as vortex (“whirl; top of the head”) inflecting with -ex.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpol.leks/, [ˈpɔlːʲɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpol.leks/, [ˈpɔlːeks]

Noun

pollex m (genitive pollicis); third declension

1. thumb
2. big toe
3. a unit of distance, equivalent to approximately 24.6 mm; one uncia (see also: Ancient Roman units of measurement)
4. seal (insignia)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pollex	pollicēs
Genitive	pollicis	pollicum
Dative	pollicī	pollicibus
Accusative	pollicem	pollicēs
Ablative	pollice	pollicibus
Vocative	pollex	pollicēs

Derived terms

• pollicāris
• *pollicāta

Descendants

• Catalan: polze
• French: pouce ⇒ poucier
  • → Sicilian: puseri
• Italian: pollice
• Occitan: poce
• Piedmontese: pòle
• Romansch: polesch, polisch, polsch
• Sardinian: póddiche, póddighe (“finger”)
• → Czech: pólech
• → English: pollex ⇒ pollical
• → Esperanto: polekso
• → Greek: πόλεξ (pólex)
• → Portuguese: pólex, pólice
• → Romanian: police
• → Spanish: pólice

References

• “pollex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pollex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pollex in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “pollex”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “pŏllen”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 497