Definition
In old legal records, *digitus* (Latin) appears in two distinct senses:
1. **Handwriting.** In medieval English records and Latin legal documents, *digitus* was used to mean a person's handwriting — the literal "hand" or writing of an individual, used as evidence of authorship or authentication of a document.
2. **A unit of linear measurement.** In classical Roman usage, *digitus* denoted a finger-breadth, the smallest standard unit of Roman linear measure, equal to approximately three-quarters of an inch (one-sixteenth of a Roman foot, the *pes*).
Both senses are essentially historical curiosities in modern legal research, appearing only in old records, Latin instruments, and antiquarian legal commentary. Neither sense survives in contemporary legal usage.
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Common Language
**Modern common usage (Wiktionary):** An Ancient Roman unit of length, approximately 0.73 inches (a finger-breadth).
**Historical common usage:** The ordinary Latin word for "finger," used in both anatomical and metonymic senses, including handwriting (the work of the fingers) and the unit of measurement derived from the width of a finger.
The gap between common and legal meaning here is narrow but worth flagging: the common reader encountering *digitus* in an old record will likely think of the measurement sense, but in old English legal records the operative meaning was specifically **handwriting** — a metonymic use derived from the finger as the instrument of writing. Researchers reading Latin instruments should not default to the measurement sense without checking context.
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Common Confusion
Researchers should not conflate *digitus* (handwriting, or finger-breadth) with *manus* (hand), which also appears in Latin legal records in the sense of handwriting and authority. *Manus* carries additional legal weight in Roman law as a term of power and guardianship (*manus* over a wife, for example), while *digitus* in the handwriting sense is narrower and more purely physical. The two terms are not synonyms in formal Roman or medieval Latin legal usage.
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Why It Matters in Research
*Digitus* is a low-frequency Latin term but presents a real interpretive trap in old records and Latin legal documents. Two issues for researchers:
**Disambiguation.** When *digitus* appears in a medieval or early modern legal instrument, the measurement sense and the handwriting sense are not interchangeable. Boundary descriptions and conveyancing documents may use *digitus* in the linear measure sense; authentication clauses, witness attestations, and probate-adjacent documents are more likely to invoke the handwriting sense. Context — particularly the surrounding Latin and the type of instrument — is the primary guide.
**Spelman's authority.** Burrill cites Spelman as his source for the handwriting meaning. Henry Spelman's *Glossarium Archaiologicum* (published posthumously, 1664) is a foundational glossary of medieval Latin legal and ecclesiastical terms, widely relied upon by later legal lexicographers. When Burrill defers to Spelman, researchers working with old records should treat the definition as rooted in that tradition of learned antiquarian scholarship rather than in reported case law or statute. It is a lexicographic tradition, not a judicial one.
**Roman law sources.** Researchers working in Roman law or civil law jurisdictions will encounter *digitus* as a unit of measure in property descriptions. The Roman linear system runs: *digitus* (finger) → *palmus* (palm, four digits) → *pes* (foot, sixteen digits) → *cubitum* (cubit) → *passus* (pace). Knowing the system prevents misreading of dimensions in Roman-derived instruments.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's entry is minimal: "In old records. Handwriting. Spelman." This is a relay citation — Burrill is passing along Spelman's authority without independent elaboration. The entry does not indicate how widely the term appeared in English legal records or in what classes of documents it was most commonly encountered.
What historical dictionaries collectively omit: any discussion of the measurement sense in legal contexts. Roman law treatises and civil law commentaries address the linear measure, but the major English legal dictionaries (Burrill, Black's, Bouvier) do not develop this sense. Researchers needing the measurement meaning will find better support in classical Latin dictionaries (Lewis & Short) and works on Roman metrology than in legal lexicographic sources.
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