Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 81.djvu/618

612

Five has changed a great deal, though it can usually be recognized.

Six has changed but little.

Up to the fifteenth century seven was usually recumbent in posture.

Eight has preserved its shape.

So has nine for the most part.

The symbol for nothing has varied greatly, and in an arbitrary manner.

The name of this last symbol is interesting. The Hindus called it sunya, void. In Arabic this became sifr or as-sifr. In 1202 Leonardo Fibonacci translated it zephirum; in 1330 Maximus Planudes called it τζιφρα, tziphra. During the fourteenth century Italian writers shortened it to zeuero and ceuro, which became zero, now in general use. Meanwhile it had passed more nearly in Arabic form into French as chiffre, and into English as cipher, taking on new significations. Perhaps the schoolboy of to-day, who speaks of getting "zip" for an answer, is himself reverting to the Arabic.

After the Renaissance the Hindu numerals gradually supplanted other forms, and by the seventeenth century the process was nearly complete. From Europe in turn they have spread over the world, until they are now in general use wherever civilized man is living,