mid-15c., "pertaining to numbers below ten;" 1650s, "pertaining to fingers," from Latin digitalis, from digitus "finger or toe" (see digit). The numerical sense is because numerals under 10 were counted on fingers. Meaning "using numerical digits" is from 1938, especially of computers which run on data in the form of digits (opposed to analogue) after c. 1945. In reference to recording or broadcasting, from 1960.
1995, initialism (acronym) from Digital Video Disc, later changed to Digital Versatile Disc.
Earlier this year, electronics giant Toshiba positioned the first DVD players available in the U.S. as a home entertainment unit (retail price $600). [Black Enterprise magazine, June 1997]
"device for connecting computers and electronic musical instruments," 1983, acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.
also PDA, by 1992, initialism (acronym) for personal digital assistant.
"unit of digital information in a computer," typically consisting of eight bits, 1956, American English; see bit (n.2). Reputedly coined by German-born American computer scientist Werner Buchholz (1922-2019) at IBM.
"episodic series of spoken-word digital audio files that can be downloaded to a personal device and listened to at leisure," 2004, noun and verb, from pod-, from iPod, brand of portable media player, + second element abstracted from broadcast. Related: Podcasting.
1979 as an abbreviation of compact disc as a digital system of information storage. By 1959 as an abbreviation of certificate of deposit "written statement from a bank acknowledging it has received a sum of money from the person named" (1819).
1550s, "person who examines critically," agent noun from scan (v.). From 1927 as a type of mechanical device, at first often in television technology, by mid-20c. used of radar and radiation imaging devices; later of computer digital readers.
1826, "an analogous thing," from French analogue (adj. and n.), from Latin analogus (adj.), from Greek analogos "proportionate, according to due proportion," from ana "throughout; according to" (see ana-) + logos "ratio, proportion," a specialized use (see Logos).
The word was used in English in Greek form (analogon) in 1810. The meaning "word corresponding with another" is from 1837. The computing sense, in reference to operating with numbers represented by some measurable quantity (as a slide-rule does; opposed to digital) is recorded from 1946.
