digitalis

Modern Latin, from Latin digitālis (“of the fingers”) (named in reference to the German common name for the plant, Fingerhut (“thimble”)). Doublet of digital.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪdʒɪˈtɑːlɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dɪd͡ʒɪˈtælɪs/, /dɪd͡ʒɪˈteɪlɪs/

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digitalis (countable and uncountable, plural digitalises)

1. Any plant of the genus Digitalis (herbaceous plants of the Plantaginaceae family, including the foxglove, Digitalis purpurea).
   • 1834, James Moore, “Gardens of the Misses Garnier”, in The Gardener’s Magazine, and Register of Rural & Domestic Improvement, volume 19, page 210:

     11. Delphiniums and digitalises.

   • 1836, Joseph Harrison, The Floricultural Cabinet, and Florists’ Magazine, volume 4, page 133:

     At the Medico-Botanical Society on Tuesday, Dr. Morries, made some some observations on opium, digitales, conium, and hyoscyamus, and exhibited specimens of oils obtained from the latter plants.

   • 1903, American Florist, volume 19, page 555:

     Polemoniums of various species, aubretias, dwarf phloxes, delphiniums, digitalises, gerums, erigerons and a number of other things have bloomed a second time […]

2. (medicine) A medical extract of Digitalis purpurea prescribed for heart failure etc.
   • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 188:

     ‘You very nearly died. I had to give you digitalis three times.’

   • 2001, Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 25:

     The ancient remedy digitalis, extracted from the foxglove plant, for example, acts by blocking sodium channels in heart muscle, preventing potentially dangerous overactivity.

• digitalize

• “digitalis”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Learned borrowing from Latin digitālis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdiɡitɑ(ː)lis/, [ˈdiɡiˌt̪ɑ̝(ː)lis̠]
• Rhymes: -ɑlis
• Syllabification^(key): di‧gi‧ta‧lis

digitalis

1. digitalis (medical extract)

• “digitalis”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

digitus (“finger, toe”) +‎ -ālis.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /di.ɡiˈtaː.lis/, [d̪ɪɡɪˈt̪äːlʲɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /di.d͡ʒiˈta.lis/, [d̪id͡ʒiˈt̪äːlis]

digitālis (neuter digitāle); third-declension two-termination adjective

1. Of or belonging to the finger

Third-declension two-termination adjective.

• “digitalis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• digitalis 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)
• digitalis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.