It is named after magic or rings, or called nameless (for example, in Chinese: 無名指 / 无名指; pinyin: wúmíng zhǐ; lit.

For example to heal a stingy eye or a pimple or a ringworm one must draw a cross on it with the nameless finger or rub it gently.

'medicine finger'), deriving its name from the fact that it was frequently used when taking traditional powdered medicine, as it was rarely used otherwise and hence was considered the cleanest of all.

[8] In other languages such as Sanskrit, Finnish, and Russian, the ring finger is called "Anamika", "nimetön", and "Безымянный" (bezymianny, "nameless"), respectively.

Before medical science discovered how the circulatory system functioned, people believed that a vein ran directly from the fourth digit on the left hand to the heart.

[10] Based upon this name, their contemporaries, purported experts in the field of matrimonial etiquette, wrote that it would only be fitting that the wedding ring be worn on this digit.

By wearing the ring on the fourth digit of the left hand, a married couple symbolically declares their eternal love for each other.

These include: Australia, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the US,[13] as well as France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Netherlands [if Catholic], Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, and the Catalan-speaking regions of Spain.

[14] In Eastern Europe, these include Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

In Central or Western Europe, these include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands (if not Catholic), Norway, and Spain (except in the Catalan-speaking regions).

This is a popular type of "finger style" guitar playing, where the "A" comes from Latin, where the word anulus means ring.