cipher

The story

1. Arabic · derived fromصِفْر“zero, empty”
2. Old French · derived fromcyfre
3. Middle English · inherited fromcifre
4. English todaycipher

14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “zero, empty”), from صَفَرَ (ṣafara, “to be empty”). Doublet of chiffre and zero. Sense 8 (a fault in an organ valve) may be a different word.

Words from the same roots