Etymograph

English

cipher

Cipher comes from Middle English cifre ‘the figure 0’, from Old French cyfre, from Medieval Latin cifra, and ultimately from Arabic صِفْر ‘zero, empty’.

  1. Arabicc. 500–presentصِفْر1‘zero, empty’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500cifra1
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400cyfre1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cifre1‘the figure 0’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1594cipher1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English cipher
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto): “Yea the illiterate that know not how To cipher…”.

Lineage

  1. Arabicc. 500–presentصِفْرWiktionary, English cipher‘zero, empty’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500cifraWiktionary, English cipher
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400cyfreWiktionary, English cipher
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cifreWiktionary, English cipher‘the figure 0’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1594cipherWiktionary, English cipher. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto): “Yea the illiterate that know not how To cipher…”

The story

Sense 8 (a fault in an organ valve) may be a different word.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

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Today it means

noun A numeric character.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cipher”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Arabic صِفْر / cipher