The History of Zero: From Sanskrit Emptiness to the Word We Use Today

What Zero and a Sweet Treat Have in Common

At first glance — nothing. But that’s not quite right.

Zero has a complicated history: it was independently discovered three times, misunderstood for centuries, and long refused acceptance. Finally, in the 13th century, it arrived in Europe alongside Arabic numerals.

The History of Zero and Its Arabic Name

The translation of Arabic scholarly works into Latin was carried out by Italian scholars — most notably Fibonacci himself. In Arabic, zero was called ṣifr, meaning “empty” — itself a translation of the Sanskrit concept of emptiness. This word happened to sound remarkably close to another Latin word: Zephyrus (inherited from the Greek Zephyros), denoting the “western wind.” As a result, zero acquired the Latin name zephirum.

From Zephirum to Zero: How the Word Evolved

Over the following two centuries, Italians reshaped zephirum into the more naturally Italian zefiro, and eventually shortened it further to zero. Around the same time, near the town of Kolomna, the first recipes appeared for a confection that — three or four hundred years later — would take on a lighter, airier form and receive a name inspired by that same western wind: zefir, the Russian marshmallow.

How the History of Zero Unexpectedly Circles Back

And so zero drew unexpectedly close to a delicious pastry — and then drifted away again. Or perhaps to the western wind itself, depending on which story you prefer.