Wiktionary

chiffre

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

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

    1. number; digit

    Descendants

    edit

    References

    edit
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=chiffre&oldid=89702531"