Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Cryptography
/krɪpˈtɒɡrəfi/noun
The design of codes and ciphers that keep information unreadable to outsiders.
The Greek roots
κρυπτός
kryptós
hidden, secret
γράφειν
gráphein
to write
Literally: “hidden writing”
The story of the word
English built the word in the seventeenth century, when secret writing became a printed subject rather than a private trick; John Wilkins published a whole book on it in 1641. The Greeks had the practice without the name, and Spartan commanders are said to have wound a strip of leather round a rod called a skytale to line up the letters. Crypt, the hidden chamber under a church, is the same adjective.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
cryptcryptickryptonapocryphal
In a sentence
Modern cryptography rests on problems that are easy to state and brutal to solve.