E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Fingers’ Ends.
I have it at my fingers’ ends. I am quite familiar with it and can do it readily. It is a Latin proverb (Scre tanquam un’gues dig’tosq.), where the allusion is to the statuary, who knows every item of his subject by the touch. (See UNGUEM.)
1
“Costard: Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers’ ends, as they say.
Holofernes: O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem.”—Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost, v. 1.
re tanquam un’gues dig’
tosq.), where the allusion is to the statuary, who knows every item of his subject by the touch. (See U
