cryptography

Etymology

The revised OED takes it as formed from English crypto- + -graphy, after New Latin cryptographia, which is recorded in a book title of 1624, and compares French cryptographie of the same year.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford derive the word from the New Latin form,^[3][4] Barnhart from the French one,^[5] and Etymonline from either.^[6] Its parts are Ancient Greek κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”), the source of crypt,^[1][6][5] and -γραφία (-graphía, “writing”), from γραφή (graphḗ, “writing, drawing”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The art of writing in code or cipher: 1646, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica;^[2][3] Barnhart dates it to 1658 and Etymonline to the 1650s.^[5][6] The OED records cryptographer slightly earlier.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From 1653 the word also meant a piece of coded writing or a particular cipher, also figuratively.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as both the act of writing secret characters and the characters themselves, ciphers.^[7] In the 20th century it was also used for cryptanalysis, the breaking of codes,^[4][3] and Collins treats it as the science of analysing and deciphering codes, equivalent to cryptology.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds the science of devising methods of encryption.^[3]

Timeline

• 1646 – the art or practice of writing in code or cipher.^[2][3]
• 1653 – coded writing; a particular code or cipher.^[2]
• 20th century – cryptanalysis, the deciphering of codes.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The practice and study of writing messages in code or cipher so that only the intended readers can understand them, and of methods of encryption: Modern banking depends on cryptography.^[3][2][8]
2. The deciphering of such messages; cryptanalysis.^[3][4][8]
3. Coded writing; a particular cipher.^[2][3]

Word family

• cryptographic
• cryptographically
• cryptographer

Related words

• crypt
• cryptology
• cryptanalysis
• cryptic
• cryptogram
• grotto

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins