This is the illusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman and language is designated driver for

the night.

Coming up in today's show, unlocking language to warm up his some word history.

De-Syther.

It has the sense of decoding now, but if you trace it right back, you reach nothing.

That is the meaning of the word from which Cyther originated, the Arabic safara, to be empty,

from which came the Arabic word for zero, seafra.

In his 1202 book of counting, the Italian mathematician Fibonacci introduced the Arabic numerical

system to Europe, replacing Roman numerals which didn't have a symbol for zero, so the

numerals brought its name with it.

By the early 15th century, Cyther had come to mean any decimal digit in English, but

soon it also implied a code, because codes often substituted numbers for letters, and thus

De-Syther was the reversal of that code.

Variations of the word Cyther still mean zero in quite a few languages, and in English,

it also has the sense of a person who is a zero worth nothing.

Is there in the etymology?

Etymology is harsh.

On with the show.

I'm holding, by the edges, the present and perhaps future of language.

This is one of our prototypes of the Rosetta disc that we have on display here at the

Interval.

The interval is down in the Fort Mason Centre for Arts and Culture, a former US Army base

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