English → Latin
“dig” in Latin
fodiōto dig, dig up, dig out; to bury; to dig or clear out the earth from a place; to mine, quarry; to prick, prod, pierce, teffodiōto dig out or up, excavate, mine; to hollow outīnfodiōto dig in or up, bury in the earth, inter, make by digging; excavatefōnswater issuing from the ground, a spring; the water or waters of a river, sea etc.; a well, fountain or font (a large conferrumiron; any tool made of iron; swordēliciōto draw or pull out or forth; to entice, elicit, coax; to conjure, summon (a spirit, god, etc.)ēruōto cast or throw out; to dig, tear or pluck out
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
dig v.
INTR., fodere: to dig for anything, aliquid rimari (to search for by digging; e.g., radices arborum); suscitare et elicere (e.g., fontem); e terrae cavernis elicere (e.g., ferrum; the two last = to dig for; to endeavor to find and bring up from the bowels of the earth).
TRANS., To dig out, or dig up, fodere, effodere (e.g., gold, silver): elicere (e.g., ferrum e cavernis): eruere (e.g., a corpse).
To work about by digging; to dig over, fodere (e.g., a garden).
To make by digging, fodere; effodere (e.g., a well, a lake, etc.): infodere (e.g., sulcum, lacum).
To dig through, perfodere: to dig under, suffodere: to dig round, circumfodere (general term): ablaqueare or oblaqueare (to dig round a tree): to dig up by the roots, eradicare: exstirpare: radicitus vellere, evellere, extrahere, evellere et extricare.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for dig?
- The usual Latin words for “dig” are fodiō, effodiō, īnfodiō; also fōns, ferrum, ēliciō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.