From: adwestro@ouray.Denver.Colorado.EDU (Alan Westrope)
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 93 07:27:19 PST
To: arthurc@crl.com
Subject: Re: "Cipher"
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.87.9312111505.A16266-0100000@crl.crl.com>
Message-ID: <0Pp2jaa0iwcDyarn@ouray.denver.colorado.edu>
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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>
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