English → Latin
“inch” in Latin
digitusa finger, toe; a digit, number; an inch (in ancient times, a 16th part of a Roman foot)digitālisOf or belonging to the fingerunciasnow leopardtrānsvertōto turn or direct across or athwart; to turn over; to turn away or avertet cēteraet cetera, and the rest, and so on: used to note that the rest of a list or piece of information continues in a similar paulātimgradually, little by little, bit by bitsēnsimgradually, slowly, gently, gingerly
The English word inch itself goes back to Latin ū̆ncia.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
inch
digitus (a finger’s thickness); adjective, digitalis: uncia (the twelfth of a whole; as measure of length, Front., Aquaed., 24; Plin., 6, 34, 39). Not to depart a single inch from anything, ab aliqua re non (transversum) digitum decedere: not an inch, ne tantulum quidem (IMPROP., not at all, however little). I don’t Vid: a single inch of land in Italy which, etc., pedem in Italia video nullum esse, qui, etc. By inches, paullatim: sensim; Vid: GRADUALLY.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for inch?
- The usual Latin words for “inch” are digitus, digitālis, uncia; also trānsvertō, et cētera, paulātim. 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.