cipher的词源

英文词源

cipher: cipher: [14] The central meaning of cipher is ‘zero’ (a word to which it is related); its use since the 16th century in connection with encrypted communications derives from the fact that in their earliest forms such codes usually consisted of numbers representing letters, and cipher had by then broadened in use from ‘nought’ to ‘any numeral’. It entered English through Old French cifre, which came via medieval Latin cifra from Arabic sifr (source of English zero); this was a nominal use of an adjective meaning ‘empty’.
=> zero
cipher (n.): late 14c., "arithmetical symbol for zero," from Old French cifre "nought, zero," Medieval Latin cifra, with Spanish and Italian cifra, ultimately from Arabic sifr "zero," literally "empty, nothing," from safara "to be empty;" loan-translation of Sanskrit sunya-s "empty." The word came to Europe with Arabic numerals. Originally in English "zero," then "any numeral" (early 15c.), then (first in French and Italian) "secret way of writing; coded message" (a sense first attested in English 1520s), because early codes often substituted numbers for letters. Klein says Modern French chiffre is from Italian cifra.
cipher (v.): "to do arithmetic" (with Arabic numerals), 1520s, from cipher (n.). Meaning "to write in code" is from 1560s. Related: Ciphered; ciphering.

来自古法语cifre,零，来自意大利语cifra,零，来自阿拉伯语sifr,零，来自s-f-r,空的，空无，词源同zero.因为古人早期对数字零的认识不足，该词逐渐被赋予神秘色彩，词义也由零引申为密码。相关词：

decipher：解密，解码。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：cipher 词源，cipher 含义。