▪ I. fingering, n.
(ˈfɪŋgərɪŋ)
Also 7–8 Sc. fingram, 8 Sc. fingrim, fingrine, fingrum, -om, 9 fingerin.
[The oldest forms fingram etc., combined with the difficulty of connecting the sense with that of finger, suggest that the word may be an early corruption of F. fin grain, lit. ‘fine grain’ (cf. grogram from gros grain.)]
1. A kind of wool or yarn used chiefly in knitting stockings; ‘worsted spun of combed wool, on the small wheel’ (Jam.). Also attrib.
| 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 107 There fingram stockings spun on rocks lyes. 1808 Jamieson, Fingerin. 1875 Plain Needlework 10 Fingering Yarn. 1885 Bazaar 30 Mar. 332/1 Stocking..knitted with German fingering wool. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 10 May 3/3 Stockings made from the best ‘fingerings’. |
† 2. A kind of woollen cloth. Sc. Obs.
| 1707 G. Miege Pres. State Gt. Brit. ii. 24 Large Flocks of Sheep they have in Scotland produce abundance of Wool, from whence come..Fingrines, Serges [etc.]. 1719 Act 6 Geo. I, c. 13 An Act for..preventing Frauds..in manufacturing Serges..and Fingrums. 1733 P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 105 At Aberdeen, and Countries adjacent, large Quantities of our own coarse tarred Wooll are manufactured into coarse Serges, called Fingrams. |
▪ II. fingering, vbl. n.
(ˈfɪŋgərɪŋ)
[f. finger v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the vb. finger in various senses.
| c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 249 in Babees Bk. 306 Bekenyng, fynguryng, non þou use. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 144 As when one hath..got his livyng with light fingeryng. 1567 Drant Horace Epist. B j, Measure the lawe of sounde by fingering, or by eare. 1621 Sanderson Serm. I. 214 Uzza had better have ventured the falling, than the fingering of the ark, though it tottered. 1760 Impostors Detected I. 251 He shall not have the fingering of her any more than myself. 1818 Jas. Mill Brit. India (1840) I. i. iii. 80 The Directors..had expected the fingering of the money. 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. i. (1885) 28 Covers browned..with..the fingering of..book-misers. |
† b. Work done with the fingers. Cf. finger v. 6.
| 1590 Spenser Muiopotmos 366 Nor anie skil'd in loupes of fingring fine. |
2. Mus. a. The action of using the fingers in playing upon an instrument; the proper method of doing this.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 91 As an harpe obeieth to the honde, And maketh it soune after his fingering. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 39 Instrumentes..whyche standeth by fine and quicke fingeringe. 1593 Pass. Morrice 78 Shee tooke her lute, singing to her fingering this sonnet. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. ii. 103 The Rule of true Fingering. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i, I learnt much music..fine sleights of hand And unimagined fingering. |
b. The indication, by figures set against the notes of a piece of music, of the way in which the fingers are to be used in its performance.
| 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 527/2 The earliest German fingering..was the same as the present English system. |
3. attrib.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1252, I am better acquainted with the fingring Musicke and manuall practise than otherwise. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 255 A cheat, That lets his false Dice freely run..But never lets a true one stir Without some fingering Trick or Slur. 1883 Blackie in Contemp. Rev. June 814 Not from any fingering induction of external details. |
▪ III. fingering, ppl. a.
(ˈfɪŋgərɪŋ)
[f. finger v. + -ing2.]
That fingers (an instrument); also, addicted to ‘fingering’ or petty manipulation.
| 1712 Spectator No. 338 ¶2 Those fingering Gentlemen should be informed that they ought to suit their Airs to the Place. 1799 Wordsw. Poet's Epitaph v, Philosopher! a fingering slave. 1816 [see finicalness]. |