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Re: "Cipher"
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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 <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
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