Digitation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A finger-like projection or subdivision of a body part or plant structure ; the use or arrangement of the fingers when playing a musical instrument
2. A slender finger-shaped process on an organ or plant ; the manner in which a musician positions and moves the fingers on an instrument
3. One of several finger-like extensions of a structure in anatomy or botany ; the technique of fingering notes on a keyboard or stringed instrument

Etymology: "Digitation" is a plain technical formation: the noun "digitate" (from Latin "digitatus," meaning "having fingers" or "fingered," from "digitus," finger) with the suffix "-ation," which turns a verb or adjective into a noun of state or process. The "-ation" suffix comes into English through French from Latin "-atio," which is why it attaches so readily to Latin-derived stems. In biology, the word names a finger-like projection on an organism's body, the sort of structure that a leaf, a sponge, or an animal's appendage might bear. The name describes the shape the structure takes rather than any function, so it was chosen by anatomists and botanists who needed a precise term for something that looks like a finger.