also fingertip, 1817, from finger (n.) + tip (n.). Related: Fingertips. To have something at one's fingertips is from 1870.
Entries linking to finger-tip
finger n.
"terminal or digital member of the hand" (in a restricted sense not including the thumb), Old English finger, fingor "finger," from Proto-Germanic *fingraz (source also of Old Saxon fingar, Old Frisian finger, Old Norse fingr, Dutch vinger, German Finger, Gothic figgrs "finger"), with no cognates outside Germanic; perhaps ultimately from PIE root *penkwe- "five."
As a unit of measure for liquor and gunshot (late Old English) it represents the breadth of a finger, about three-quarters of an inch. They generally are numbered from the thumb outward, and named index finger, fool's finger, leech- or physic-finger, and ear-finger.
tip v.1
c. 1300, "to knock down, overturn, topple, knock askew" (transitive), of uncertain origin, possibly from Scandinavian (compare Swedish tippa "to tip, dump"), or from a special use of tip (n.). Intransitive sense of "to fall over, be overturned" is from mid-15c. Related: Tipped; tipping. To tip the scales at "weigh (so much" is from 1879. Tipping point attested by 1972. To tip (one's) hand "reveal one's intentions" is from 1907, an image from poker-playing.