Zero

Word of the Day

Cipher (noun)

Pronunciation: [sI-fê(r)]

Definition: 1) The mathematical symbol "0." (2) A written Arabic numeral, e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc. (3) A cryptographic system that converts letters into a code. (4) A person of no power or significance, a nonentity.

Usage: "Cypher" is still an acceptable spelling in most English-speaking communities though a bit stodgy. Two verbs are derived from "cipher," encipher "to encode, encrypt" and decipher "to decode, decrypt."

Suggested Usage: Using today's word to mean "zero" is no longer common but don't be surprised to read something like this on a questionnaire, "If you are not sure how many children you have, enter a cipher (zero) in the space beside 'Number of Children'." (That is enough to make your children feel like ciphers [nonentities].) If you tend to the paranoiac, you might need this: "Sometimes I think Tom is speaking in cipher (code); he speaks so intensely, yet only half of what he says is comprehensible." It remains a way to distinguish Arabic numbers, "I stopped numbering my chapters with ciphers in favor of Roman numerals."

Etymology: Today's word originated in the Arabic word for "zero," çifr, literally "empty, void" from the verb çafara "to be empty." The Arabs simply translated the Sanskrit word s'unya "zero, empty" when they borrowed the concept of zero from the Hindus. The Hindus developed the concept of zero around 600 A.D, about 500 years after the Mayans. (Today we thank Dr. Martin Benjamin, Editor of the Kamusi Living Swahili Dictionary Project at Yale, and his father, a mathematician who kept him well informed in such matters. For a more religious explanation of zero, read "Steppingstone to the Stars" by The Wordman, found in the YD library.)

–Dr. Language, YourDictionary.com