ˈring-finger
[ring n.1 So G., Da., Sw. ringfinger, Du. -vinger.]
The third finger of the hand, especially of the left hand.
| c 1000 Saxon Leechd. I. 330 Nim æppel mid þinre wynstran handa, mid twam fingrum, þæt is mid þuman & mid hring fingre. c 1050 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 264 Anularis, hringfinger. |
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxix. (Bodl. MS.), Þe ferþe hat also annularis, þe ringe finger, for þereon þe ringe is ibore. c 1440 Alph. Tales 33 Onone sho putt furth hur ryng-fynger & profird it to hym, & he putt on þe ryng. 1543 Recorde Arith. 134 b, To expresse 8, you shall bow after the same maner both the lyttell fynger and the rynge fynger. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. p. xij b/2 The Medicinalle finger, or Ringe finger, betweene the little finger and the middle finger. 1644 Bulwer Chiron. 82 If the Ring Finger by a single Action goe out of the open Hand. 1741 Monro Anat. (ed. 3) 275 The Ring-finger is the third in Bigness. 1796 Phil. Trans. LXXXVII. 19 In a case where the last joint of the ring-finger had been torn off. 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 143 The middle finger is the longest; the index and ring-fingers follow next. 1877 W. Jones Finger-ring 526 In Somersetshire the ring-finger is thought to have the power of curing any sore or wound that is rubbed with it. |
Hence
† ring-fingered a. Obs.—1| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 431 St. James found, not to be χρυσοδακτύλιος Ring-finger'd, might want a Seale, or (as we now might say) might stand at a Pew doore. |