zero

Forms

zero m (plural zeros)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French zéro, which was borrowed from Italian zero, from Medieval Latin zephirum, from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “empty; zero”).^[2][3][1] Silva Bastos and Michaelis derive it directly from the Italian word, and Nascentes says the French form came in through writing.^[4][5][6]

The Medieval Latin form was coined by Leonardo of Pisa: Nocentini names his Liber Abaci of 1228, Wiktionary dates the first use to 1202.^[7][1] The Italian word is a contraction of zefiro.^[8] French took it from Italian in 1485, and Spanish cero is also from Italian.^[8][9] Nascentes adds that the Arabic word translated a Sanskrit word for “empty”.^[6]

The same Arabic word, borrowed earlier, gave cifra, of which this word is a doublet.^[1][2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record that Houaiss and Cunha give is Constâncio's dictionary of 1836, for the noun, the figure 0.^[2][3] A Bahian letter of 1866 has the word in ordinary use.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Vieira defines zero as the figure 0, which has no value of its own but multiplies by ten the figures to its left.^[12] The original Caldas Aulete adds the zero of measuring instruments and the familiar senses “nothing” and “a person or thing of no worth”, with ficar reduzido a zero “to be left with nothing”.^[13] The figurative zero à esquerda “a zero on the left” is a person of no account.^[5][1] Later came the mark 0 in an examination, the additive identity of algebra and the zero of linguistics, an absent feature that contrasts with a present one.^[2][14]

The verb zerar “to reduce to zero” is derived from it.^[1]

Timeline

• 1202 – Leonardo of Pisa uses Medieval Latin zephirum.^[1]
• 1485 – French zéro, from Italian.^[8]
• 1836 – first record in Portuguese, in Constâncio's dictionary.^[2][3]
• 1858 – Cunha's main dating of the word.^[3]
• 1866 – zero in a letter from Bahia.^[11]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira explains the figure's place value.^[12]

Meanings

Numeral

1. zero, the cardinal number of an empty set; nought.^[2][14][1]
2. Of the first item of a series: a hora zero, grau zero.^[2]

Noun

1. The figure 0, the digit for that number.^[2][1]
2. The starting point of a scale, as on a thermometer or a ruler; the temperature at which ice melts.^[2][15]
3. Nothing at all: A fortuna dele ficou reduzida a zero.^[2][15][1]
4. (informal) A person or thing of no worth;^[2][5][1] zero à esquerda.^[2][5][1]
5. The lowest mark in an examination.^[14][16]
6. (mathematics) The additive identity; the value of a variable at which a function is zero.^[2][14][1]
7. (linguistics) The meaningful absence of a feature, as the masculine ending beside the feminine -a.^[2][16]

Word family

• zerar
• zerésimo

Related words

• cifra
• Italian zero
• Spanish cero

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. zero
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. zero
4. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. zero
5. ^ a b c d Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. zero
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 532
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. zero
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. zéro
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 50
10. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. cero
11. ^ a b Carneiro, Zenaide de Oliveira Novais; Lacerda, Mariana Fagundes de Oliveira (orgs.), CE-DOHS: Corpus Eletrônico de Documentos Históricos do Sertão, Feira de Santana: UEFS, http://www5.uefs.br/cedohs, p. s.v. zero
12. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 1032
13. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. zero
14. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. zero
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. zero
16. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. zero