chiffre

Forms

chiffre m (plural chiffres)^[1] Old French cifre, chifre, cyfre, cyffres, masculine and feminine.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin cifra (“zero”) (12th century), from Arabic صفر (ṣifr, “empty, zero”).^{[3][5][6][1][7]} The Arabic word is a calque of the Sanskrit word for “empty”, which also meant zero.^[5][3] Zero being the most characteristic innovation of the Arabic number system, the word came to name all its figures.^[3][5]

The change of the initial /s/ to /ʃ/ is hard to explain.^[3] Bloch and Wartburg derive the modern word from Italian cifra (“numeral, secret code”), which displaced the Old French cifre.^[2] The TLFi judges the influence of Italian, or of Catalan xifra, unlikely, and finds better an influence of Picard, since the industrial towns of the north adopted Arabic numerals early and the oldest texts are Picard;^[3][5] Rey agrees.^[3][5] The Grand Robert leaves the Italian route open.^[6] It is a doublet of zéro.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears about 1220, in Gautier de Coinci's Miracles de Nostre Dame, in the sense “zero”, there figuratively in the common phrase chifre en augorisme “a person of no worth”.^[3][5][9] A 13th-century Comput explains that the last figure, cyfre, counts for nothing but multiplies the others.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The senses “zero” and “worthless person” lasted until 1599 and were then taken over by zéro.^[3][5][8] From 1485 the word named every sign used to write numbers, and since 1832 the number itself.^[3][5] Because zero seemed to have a magic power, the word took the sense “secret writing, code” (1497–1498, Commynes), then “symbolic language” (about 1657, Pascal).^[3][5] The idea of conventional signs gave the sense “interlaced initials, monogram” (1529, Geoffroy Tory) and a musical sense (1741).^[3][5]

In the plural les chiffres meant mathematics (1835, Académie).^[3] The derivatives chiffrer (1515) and déchiffrer (about 1467) follow these senses.^[5][2]

Timeline

• c. 1220 – Chifres “zero” in Gautier de Coinci.^[3][5]
• c. 1467 – Déchiffrer is recorded.^[5]
• 1485 – Used for any numerical sign.^[3][5][2]
• 1497–1498 – Commynes uses it for secret writing.^[3][5]
• 1515 – Chiffrer is recorded.^[5][2]
• 1529 – Geoffroy Tory uses chyfres for initials.^[3][5]
• 1599 – Last record of the sense “zero”.^[3]
• 1741 – Musical sense.^[3][5]
• 1832 – Stendhal uses it for the number itself.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A digit, each of the signs used to write numbers: chiffres arabes, chiffres romains.^[10][11]
2. Les chiffres: arithmetic, calculation.^[10][3]
3. A figure, the number expressed in digits, an amount or total: le chiffre des dépenses.^[10][11]
4. Chiffre d'affaires: turnover, the total of a firm's sales.^[1][10]
5. A cipher, a secret code, and the department handling coded correspondence.^[10][11][1]
6. A monogram, interlaced initials: du papier à lettres à son chiffre.^[11][3]
7. (music) A figure of the figured bass.^[3][1]
8. A set of marks a firm uses to record the cost price of its goods.^[11]

Word family

• chiffrable
• chiffrage
• chiffrement
• chiffrer
• déchiffrer
• chiffreur
• déchiffrable
• indéchiffrable
• déchiffrement

Related words

• zéro
• algorithme
• algèbre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 156a
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)