See also: Chiffre and chiffré

English edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from French chiffre. Doublet of cipher and zero.

Noun edit

chiffre (plural chiffres)

  1. (music) A figure or motif (short melodic or lyrical passage that is repeated).
    • 2014, Peter Wegele, Max Steiner: Composing, Casablanca, and the Golden Age of Film Music:
      At the end of the eighteenth century, French opera composers like A. E. Grétry (Richard Coeur de Lion, 1784), L. Cherubini (Medeé, 1797), and J. Fr. Le Cueur (Ossian ou les Bardes, 1804) began to “assign musical chiffres to precise dramatic situations or single figures on the stage, which were played again when these figures appeared again,” according to Bern University professor Anselm Gerhard.

French edit

Etymology edit

From Medieval Latin cifra (zero), from Andalusian Arabic صِفر (ṣifr, empty). Doublet of zéro.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ʃifʁ/
  • (file)

Noun edit

chiffre m (plural chiffres)

  1. a digit i.e. 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
  2. (colloquial or dated) a number
  3. figure (number)
  4. cipher (method of transforming a text to conceal meaning)
  5. cipher (code)
  6. (music) figure
  7. monogram

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

See also edit

Further reading edit

Old French edit

Alternative forms edit

Noun edit

chiffre oblique singularm (oblique plural chiffres, nominative singular chiffres, nominative plural chiffre)

  1. number; digit

Descendants edit

References edit