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Jump to navigationJump to searchCreated page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame ==Origin== French or Italian; French ''zéro'', from Italian ''zero'', from Medieval Latin ''zephirum'', from Arabic '...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:0drennen.jpg|right|frame]]
==Origin==
French or Italian; French ''zéro'', from Italian ''zero'', from Medieval Latin ''zephirum'', from Arabic ''ṣifr''
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_century 1598]
The word ''zero'' came via French ''zéro'' from Venetian zero, which (together with cypher) came via Italian ''zefiro'' from Arabic صفر, ṣafira = "it was empty", ṣifr = "zero", "nothing". The first known English use was in 1598.
In 976 AD the Persian encyclopedist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Ahmad_al-Khwarizmi Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi], in his "Keys of the Sciences", remarked that if, in a calculation, no number appears in the place of tens, then a little circle should be used "to keep the rows". This circle was called صفر (ṣifr, "empty") in Arabic language. That was the earliest mention of the name ''ṣifr'' that eventually became zero.
Italian zefiro already meant "west wind" from [[Latin]] and [[Greek]] ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemoi zephyrus]''; this may have influenced the spelling when transcribing Arabic ṣifr. The Italian mathematician Fibonacci (c.1170–1250), who grew up in North Africa and is credited with introducing the decimal system to Europe, used the term ''zephyrum''. This became ''zefiro'' in Italian, which was contracted to zero in Venetian.
As the decimal zero and its new mathematics spread from the Arabic world to Europe in the Middle Ages, words derived from ''ṣifr'' and ''zephyrus'' came to refer to calculation, as well as to privileged knowledge and secret codes. According to Ifrah, "in thirteenth-century Paris, a 'worthless fellow' was called a '... cifre en algorisme', i.e., an 'arithmetical nothing'." From ṣifr also came French ''chiffre'' = "digit", "figure", "number", chiffrer = "to [[calculate]] or compute", chiffré = "encrypted". Today, the word in Arabic is still ''ṣifr'', and cognates of ''ṣifr'' are common in the languages of Europe and southwest Asia.
There are different words used for the [[number]] or [[concept]] of ''zero'' depending on the [[context]]. For the simple notion of lacking, the words nothing and none are often used, while nought, naught and aught are archaic and poetic forms with the same [[meaning]]. Several sports have specific words for ''zero'', such as nil in football, love in tennis and a duck in cricket. In British English, it is often called ''oh'' in the context of telephone numbers. Slang words for zero include ''zip'', ''zilch'', ''nada'', ''scratch'' and even ''duck egg'' or ''goose egg''.
==Definitions==
*1:a : the arithmetical [[symbol]] 0 or 0̸ denoting the [[absence]] of all magnitude or [[quantity]]
:b : additive identity; specifically : the number between the set of all negative numbers and the set of all positive numbers
:c : a [[value]] of an independent variable that makes a function equal to zero <+2 and −2 are zeros of f(x)=x2−4>
*2:a (1) : the point of departure in reckoning; specifically : the point from which the graduation of a scale (as of a thermometer) begins (2) : the [[temperature]] represented by the zero mark on a thermometer
:b : the setting or [[adjustment]] of the sights of a firearm that causes it to shoot to point of aim at a desired range
*3: an insignificant [[person]] or [[thing]] : nonentity
*4:a : a state of total absence or neutrality
:b : the lowest point : nadir
*5: something [[arbitrarily]] or conveniently designated zero
==Description==
'''0''' ('''zero''' is both a number[1] and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. It fulfills a central role in [[mathematics]] as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebraic structures. As a digit, 0 is used as a placeholder in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_notation place value systems]. In the [[English]] language, 0 may be called zero, ''nought'' or (US) ''naught'' /ˈnɔːt/, ''nil'', or — in contexts where at least one adjacent digit distinguishes it from the letter "O" — oh or o /ˈoʊ/. Informal or slang terms for zero include ''zilch'' and ''zip''. Ought or aught /ˈɔːt/ has also been used historically. (See Names for the number 0 in English.)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero#Etymology]
[[Category: Mathematics]]
==Origin==
French or Italian; French ''zéro'', from Italian ''zero'', from Medieval Latin ''zephirum'', from Arabic ''ṣifr''
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_century 1598]
The word ''zero'' came via French ''zéro'' from Venetian zero, which (together with cypher) came via Italian ''zefiro'' from Arabic صفر, ṣafira = "it was empty", ṣifr = "zero", "nothing". The first known English use was in 1598.
In 976 AD the Persian encyclopedist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Ahmad_al-Khwarizmi Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi], in his "Keys of the Sciences", remarked that if, in a calculation, no number appears in the place of tens, then a little circle should be used "to keep the rows". This circle was called صفر (ṣifr, "empty") in Arabic language. That was the earliest mention of the name ''ṣifr'' that eventually became zero.
Italian zefiro already meant "west wind" from [[Latin]] and [[Greek]] ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemoi zephyrus]''; this may have influenced the spelling when transcribing Arabic ṣifr. The Italian mathematician Fibonacci (c.1170–1250), who grew up in North Africa and is credited with introducing the decimal system to Europe, used the term ''zephyrum''. This became ''zefiro'' in Italian, which was contracted to zero in Venetian.
As the decimal zero and its new mathematics spread from the Arabic world to Europe in the Middle Ages, words derived from ''ṣifr'' and ''zephyrus'' came to refer to calculation, as well as to privileged knowledge and secret codes. According to Ifrah, "in thirteenth-century Paris, a 'worthless fellow' was called a '... cifre en algorisme', i.e., an 'arithmetical nothing'." From ṣifr also came French ''chiffre'' = "digit", "figure", "number", chiffrer = "to [[calculate]] or compute", chiffré = "encrypted". Today, the word in Arabic is still ''ṣifr'', and cognates of ''ṣifr'' are common in the languages of Europe and southwest Asia.
There are different words used for the [[number]] or [[concept]] of ''zero'' depending on the [[context]]. For the simple notion of lacking, the words nothing and none are often used, while nought, naught and aught are archaic and poetic forms with the same [[meaning]]. Several sports have specific words for ''zero'', such as nil in football, love in tennis and a duck in cricket. In British English, it is often called ''oh'' in the context of telephone numbers. Slang words for zero include ''zip'', ''zilch'', ''nada'', ''scratch'' and even ''duck egg'' or ''goose egg''.
==Definitions==
*1:a : the arithmetical [[symbol]] 0 or 0̸ denoting the [[absence]] of all magnitude or [[quantity]]
:b : additive identity; specifically : the number between the set of all negative numbers and the set of all positive numbers
:c : a [[value]] of an independent variable that makes a function equal to zero <+2 and −2 are zeros of f(x)=x2−4>
*2:a (1) : the point of departure in reckoning; specifically : the point from which the graduation of a scale (as of a thermometer) begins (2) : the [[temperature]] represented by the zero mark on a thermometer
:b : the setting or [[adjustment]] of the sights of a firearm that causes it to shoot to point of aim at a desired range
*3: an insignificant [[person]] or [[thing]] : nonentity
*4:a : a state of total absence or neutrality
:b : the lowest point : nadir
*5: something [[arbitrarily]] or conveniently designated zero
==Description==
'''0''' ('''zero''' is both a number[1] and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. It fulfills a central role in [[mathematics]] as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebraic structures. As a digit, 0 is used as a placeholder in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_notation place value systems]. In the [[English]] language, 0 may be called zero, ''nought'' or (US) ''naught'' /ˈnɔːt/, ''nil'', or — in contexts where at least one adjacent digit distinguishes it from the letter "O" — oh or o /ˈoʊ/. Informal or slang terms for zero include ''zilch'' and ''zip''. Ought or aught /ˈɔːt/ has also been used historically. (See Names for the number 0 in English.)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero#Etymology]
[[Category: Mathematics]]
