Editing Digitalis (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Hendrik Goltzius, A Foxglove in Bloom, 1592, NGA 94900.jpg|alt=Brown pen and ink of a foxglove in bloom|thumb|Hendrik Goltzius, A Foxglove in Bloom, 1592, [[National Gallery of Art]], NGA 94900]]
The [[generic epithet]] ''Digitalis'' is from the Latin ''digitus'' (finger).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hollman |first1=A |date=September 1985 |title=Plants and cardiac glycosides |journal=British Heart Journal |volume= 54 |issue=3 |pages=258–261 |pmc=481893 |doi=10.1136/hrt.54.3.258 |pmid=4041297}}</ref> [[Leonhart Fuchs]] first invented the name for this plant in his 1542 book ''De historia stirpium commentarii insignes'' (''Notable comments on the history of plants''), based upon the German [[vernacular name]] ''Fingerhut'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Fuchs |first=Leonhart |author-link=Leonhart Fuchs |date=1542 |title=De historia stirpium commentarii insignes |location=Basel |publisher=In officina Isingriniana |pages=892–893 |language=la |quote=''Apellauimus autem Digitalem, alludentes ad germanicam nomenclaturam...''}}</ref><ref name=Klingaman2002>{{Cite web |url=https://www.uaex.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/foxglove.aspx |title=Plant of the Week: Foxglove |last=Klingaman |first=Gerald |date=17 May 2002 |website=University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture |language=en |access-date=2018-04-17 |archive-date=22 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422191357/https://www.uaex.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/foxglove.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> which translates literally as 'finger hat', but actually means 'thimble'.

The name is recorded in [[Old English]] as 'foxes glofe/glofa' or 'fox's glove'.<ref name="Liberman-2010">{{Cite web |title = Etymologists at War with a Flower: Foxglove |website=OUPblog |url = http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/ |access-date=2015-08-10 |date=2010-11-10 |last=Liberman |author-link = Anatoly Liberman |first=Anatoly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508161659/http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/foxglove/ |archive-date=2013-05-08 |quote="In sum, foxglove means foxglove, and this disturbing fact has to be accepted."}}</ref> Over time, folk myths obscured the literal origins of the name, insinuating that foxes wore the flowers on their paws to silence their movements as they stealthily hunted their prey. The woody hillsides where the foxes made their dens were often covered with the toxic flowers. Some of the more menacing names, such as "witch's glove", reference the toxicity of the plant.<ref name=Klingaman2002/>

[[Henry Fox Talbot]] (1847) proposed 'folks' glove', where 'folk' means fairy. Similarly, R. C. A. Prior (1863) suggested an etymology of 'foxes-glew', meaning 'fairy music'. However, neither of these suggestions account for the Old English form ''foxes glofa''.<ref name="Liberman-2010" />