Where does thumb-toe come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

thumb-toe

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.74 in modern English

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noun

"“The thumb-toe and the pinky-toe, I think. He still has his three middle ones.” “They're not called the thumb-toe and pinkytoe,” said Stuart. “It's big toe and little toe.”"

From thumb + toe, perhaps a re-modelling of Middle English thombletō, thummeltō, probably from Old Norse þumaltá (“big-toe”).

thumb-toes (plural)

How to pronounce thumb-toe

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