"Cipher"
adam fast
adamfast at u.washington.edu
Sat Dec 11 17:12:08 PST 1993
> 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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