Arabic exportsScience, ideas & the arts

cipher

Cipher comes from the same Arabic ṣifr as zero, but by an older route into Latin. It first meant the zero sign, then any digit (still the sense of German Ziffer, Dutch cijfer, Polish cyfra and Russian tsifra), then a 'nobody', and then secret writing, because early codes swapped numbers for letters.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Old French to Middle High German, German

From Medieval Latin to Italian

From Medieval Latin to Russian

From Old French to French

From Medieval Latin to Spanish

From Medieval Latin to Dutch

From Medieval Latin to Polish

From French to Russian

850 CEArabic

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

cipher

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

Export “cipher”

Embed “cipher”

Save “cipher”

Export “cipher”

Embed “cipher”

Save “cipher”