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Neil Postman, in his *Technopoly*, asserts that the word "cipher" derives ultimately from the Hindu word for void, and therefore "suggests the idea of nothingness." (p 128) Does anyone else have info on the origin of this word? Is Postman correct?
> Arthur Chandler > Neil Postman, in his *Technopoly*, asserts that the word "cipher" derives > ultimately from the Hindu word for void, and therefore "suggests the idea > of nothingness." (p 128) Does anyone else have info on the origin of this > word? Is Postman correct? the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language suggests the origin of the word cipher as: [Middle English cifre, zero, from Old French, from Medieval Latin cifra, from Arabic sifr] it doesn't go back further than that, but Postman's etymology seems sound... ciao adam
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>
> Neil Postman, in his *Technopoly*, asserts that the word "cipher" derives
> ultimately from the Hindu word for void, and therefore "suggests the idea
> of nothingness." (p 128) Does anyone else have info on the origin of this
> word? Is Postman correct?
>
An online definition (telnet chem.ucsd.edu, login webster)
supports Postman, although it only goes back to Arabic:
Word: cipher
[ME, fr. MF cifre, fr. ML cifra, fr. Ar s.ifr empty, cipher, zero]
(14c)
1a: ZERO 1a
1b: one that has no weight, worth, or influence: NONENTITY
2a: a method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning --
compare CODE 3b
2b: a message in code
3: ARABIC NUMERAL
4: a combination of symbolic letters; esp: the interwoven initials of a name
[verb defs -- "to cipher" -- deleted]
I'll refrain from smartass comments about 1b as it relates to all of us...:-)
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Alan Westrope <awestrop@nyx.cs.du.edu>
<adwestro@ouray.denver.colorado.edu>
PGP fingerprint: D6 89 74 03 77 C8 2D 43 7C CA 6D 57 29 25 69 23
finger for public key> Neil Postman, in his *Technopoly*, asserts that the word "cipher" derives >ultimately from the Hindu word for void, and therefore "suggests the idea >of nothingness." (p 128) Does anyone else have info on the origin of this >word? Is Postman correct? The use of the word 'cipher' as 'zero', both for a number and for a loser, has only fairly recently fallen out of general use. I've seen references to the word in works from the 50's and 60's where is use was not meant as an obscuring device. The use of 'cipher' in 'ciphertext' has this same connotation, that the text says nothing, that is, by itself. Eric