History in a Word
The history of the world can be found in an etymological dictionary. Take, for example, the entry for the word “cipher” (zero, code) from etymonline.com, given below.
The word traces back to Europe, the Middle East, and all the way to India, where it existed as Sanskrit “shunyata,” meaning “zero” (as well as the Buddhist word for “emptiness”). Yes, we are all related, at least linguistically. Without word migration from India, there would be no “zero” (in word or mathematical construct). Thus, no mathematics as we know it. How lucky we are that words were not subjected to immigration bans by ignorant politicians.
late 14c., “arithmetical symbol for zero,” from Old French cifre “nought, zero,” Medieval Latin cifra, with Spanish and Italian cifra, ultimately from Arabic sifr “zero,” literally “empty, nothing,” from safara “to be empty;” loan-translation of Sanskrit sunya-s “empty.” The word came to Europe with Arabic numerals. Originally in English “zero,” then “any numeral” (early 15c.), then (first in French and Italian) “secret way of writing; coded message” (a sense first attested in English 1520s), because early codes often substituted numbers for letters. Klein says Modern French chiffre is from Italian cifra.