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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by MishaVelthuis@social.edu.nl to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

Your middle finger is only your middle finger if you also count your thumb as a finger. Which I find hard to accept. @showerthoughts đź–•

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[-] Blade9732@lemmy.world 67 points 2 months ago

This is like the square/rectangle thing: "Not all fingers are thumbs, but all thumbs are fingers".

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[-] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 48 points 2 months ago

The thumb is thicker than other digits so naturally it'll be harder to accept. A lubricant may help but the key is to relax and go slow.

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Nailed it.In that case use clippers and a small sanding stick.

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 42 points 2 months ago

It's pretty normal to count the thumb as a finger. I find it strange that you would not.

If you were asked "how many fingers do you have", would you answer 8, or 10? Surely, everyone knows the answer is 10 (assuming no physical abnormalities)? On a fingering chart, music will instruct you to play a note with your thumb with the number "1" and your pinky with the number "5".

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[-] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

you count your pinky as a finger ? it is not a finger; it is a pinky.

with the thumb being a thumb and as we have previously discussed about pinky leaves three fingers and certainly a middle one

[-] griefreeze@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

What do you consider the thumb to be if not another finger?

[-] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Its a thumb. Its its own thing. If we had only ~~5~~ fingers we would be INFERIOR BEINGS

glares at spider monkies

Edit: apparently sponkeys have 4 fingers on their hands and thumbs on their feet

[-] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

Nah it's the thumb finger, like the index finger etc. We have fully truncated it to just thumb because of how it feels more unique to the others. Doesn't mean it no longer fits the categorisation though.

[-] sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

We have fully truncated it to just thumb because of how it feels more unique to the others

Kinda like the goalie on a hockey team or the drummer in a band. Still on the team, just a bit weirder.

[-] dotson@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

how is a thumb different from a finger?

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[-] dumbass@leminal.space 13 points 2 months ago

Which I find hard to accept.

How?

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Probably because of its unique structure. It is slightly different than the rest of your fingers. I wouldn't consider it different enough to exclude it from being a finger though.

[-] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Its more of a finger than a finger is a thumb

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

All of them are fingers. Thumbs are fingers, but a finger is not necessarily a thumb. I dont know where people get the idea that a thumb is not a finger. So many common sayings reinforce that it is. "Counting on your fingers (including your thumbs)", healthy babies have "Ten fingers, ten toes", "What did the five fingers say to the face... slap", "high five", "five finger discount", etc. Also, honorable mention to Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya searching for "the 6 fingered man" which includes his thumb. "Middle finger" is not the only thing that makes no sense if you don't accept that the thumb is a finger.

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

In almost every other language there isn't even a separate word for "thumb", it's just one of the fingers.

[-] kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 months ago

I don't think that's right? I know polish has a separate word, and sampling in Google translate seems to show separate words in German, french and Spanish. Maybe I got lucky and hit the exceptions, but it seems to commonly be a separate word.

[-] isyasad@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I only know Japanese, but it is 親指 (oya yubi) which means parent-finger.

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[-] Acamon@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

"middle finger" is "the finger in the middle of the digits" not "the finger on the middle of the fingers"

[-] SRo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago

What's wrong with you?

[-] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago

If it’s not a finger, what do you think it is?

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[-] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 8 points 2 months ago

I used to genuinely argue that it wasn't a finger bc it had only two segments, not three. I've since realized that there is a third and I'm fucking stupid.

[-] sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

Your original instinct was actually correct. Fingers have the metacarpal, proximal phalange, middle phalange, and distal phalange. The thumb doesn't have a middle phalange. The proximal and distal phalange connect directly to each other.

[-] madjo@feddit.nl 7 points 2 months ago

Why do you accept your pinky as a finger?

[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Yeah, that's classified as dwarf finger now.

[-] Lumidaub@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago

Oh yeah? Well đź–•

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

The thumb, the misunderstood tentacle.
An essay.

[-] guy@piefed.social 3 points 2 months ago

I got shocked when I learned my SO had learnt we have only four fingers. And a thumb.
I mean..

[-] tunetardis@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah seriously don't tell my wife this. She still counts on them and it's going to go badly…

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this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
72 points (72.2% liked)

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