Lacking fingers, toes, or digit-like appendages; also used in poetry to describe verse without dactylic meter.
Greek 'a-' (without) + 'daktylos' (finger/toe) + '-ous' (adjective suffix). Used since the 18th century in both anatomical and literary contexts.
This adjective shows how one word can live a double life—a sea creature could be literally adactylous (no fingers), while a poem could be metrically adactylous (no dactylic feet), because ancient thinkers saw the same pattern everywhere.
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