CIPHER

cipher, or cypher (from arab, _[.s]ifr_, void), the symbol 0, nought, or zero; and so a name for symbolic or secret writing (see cryptography), or even for shorthand (q.v.), and also in elementary education for doing simple sums ("ciphering"). cippus (lat. for a "post" or "stake"), in architecture, a low pedestal, either round or rectangular, set up by the romans for various purposes such as military or mile stones, boundary posts, &c. the inscriptions on some in the british museum show that they were occasionally funeral memorials.