Who told them, their little finger ?

...it's all to do with testosterone, not premonition 預感 (yùgǎn)

Everything you always wanted to know about Digit Ratio :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digit_ratio

and

http://www.human-nature.com/nibbs/02/manning.html

We could see some kind of racist background to all this studies : "The variation appears to be related to latitude, such that more northerly populations have higher digit ratios."

无名指 (Wikipedia)

" 在中文中，因为其他四只手指都有其名字，但第四只手指则没有，所以便被称为无名指。"  ;o)

Probably most common Chinese finger names are as follows,

大拇指 （= 拇指） thumb
食指 forefinger
中指 (= 中拇指, colloquial) middle finger
无名指 ring finger
小指 little finger

It seems that 季指 is a rather archaic name for the little finger. “季” means not only "season" but also "the fourth, the last, the last stage, etc".

There is an interesting Chinese phrase, 伯仲叔季 （bo2 zhong4 shu1 ji4）, and this indicates the pecking order of brothers, namely 伯(eldest)仲(second)叔(third)季(youngest son).

The same goes for winners' order, 冠军 (champion), 亚军 (second place), and 季军 (third place). Incidentally, 季春 means the third (last) month of spring, i.e. March in Chinese lunar chalendar. And 春季, of course, means "spring". 

Hi changye

You reminded me of a phrase for a "photo-finish" or where two competitors are very evenly matched:

伯仲难分

Hi pete,

The word "伯仲" is a somewhat big word, and it's mainly used in written Chinese. On the other hand, in Japanese, it's often used even in conversation. I hear that Chinese people who learn Japanese sometimes get surprised to come across this kind of Japanese words.

Modern Japanese still preserves not only ancient readings of Chinese characters but also archaic Chinese words and usages. And this is the reason that Japanese people can read classical Chinese without too much difficulty. (Of course, it's not so easy, though.)

the other fingers :

大拇指 dàmuzhǐ thumb

中拇指 zhōng(mu)zhǐ middle finger

季指 jìzhǐ little finger

Hi pete,

This Wiki article about the fourth digit is worth reading. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_finger

Incidentally, my ring fingers are longer than forefingers, but unfortunately the law doesn't seem to be applied to me, haha.

Hi changye,

The good news is I can stretch out my ring finger on its own.

The bad news is, I'm certainly not making 11 times the industry average ;-)

As the big majority of men's ring fingers are longer than the index fingers, this opportunist survey on 44 people will bring the readers to feel empathy with the traders.

But there's a more interesting survey on 720 men and women showing that finger length may be an indication of sexual orientation. Btw, that's funny how this one seems to be terribly true for women.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/695142.stm

I find this highly surrealistic, really wondering how people even come up with the idea to check such things...

The other question is, in the picture below from kimiik's link, the comparison is not between finger length as such, but how far the fingers stretch forward. Finger length proper would have to be measured from the joint to the tip of the finger. This is different because the joints aren't aligned

incidentally, my hand matches the female example, should I worry ?

Hi changye

Fascinating. Another cultural tidbit, I had a Finnish classmate who revealed that the Finnish word for "ring finger" means "nameless finger," i.e. 无名指. Coincidence?