Digitais

Digitais is the plural form of the adjective digital in Portuguese and is used in several related but distinct senses. In everyday language, it most often appears in reference to fingerprints, with the expression as digitais used to denote impression marks collected for identification, as in contexts of security, forensics, or biometrics. The concept is tied to the Latin digitus (finger or toe) and to the modern sense of digital technology.

In forensic and biometric contexts, as digitais are central to identity verification and criminal investigations. Fingerprint data are collected, stored, and analyzed to establish or confirm a person’s identity. The term is commonly encountered in police reports, immigration controls, and biometric access systems where fingerprints are recorded and compared against a database.

Beyond fingerprints, digitais also function as a grammatical form of the adjective digital, agreeing with feminine nouns to describe things related to digital technology or to digital data. Phrases such as imagens digitais, tecnologias digitais, and soluções digitais illustrate this usage, which is widespread in contemporary Portuguese when referring to digital media, information systems, and online services.

Etymology traces digitais back to digitalis, from Latin digitus for finger, later extended to the concept of digits and, in modern usage, to the digital realm. See also impressões digitais, biometria, e digitalização.