Editing 0 (section)

==Etymology==
{{Main|Names for the number 0|Names for the number 0 in English}}

The word ''zero'' came into the English language via French {{lang|fr|zéro}} from the [[Italian language|Italian]] {{lang|it|zero}}, a contraction of the Venetian {{lang|vec|zevero}} form of Italian {{lang|it|zefiro}} via ''ṣafira'' or ''ṣifr''.<ref>{{multiref2|{{cite dictionary| first= Douglas| last= Harper |date=2011| entry-url=https://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=zero&searchmode=none | entry= Zero |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703014638/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=zero&searchmode=none |archive-date=3 July 2017 | title= Etymonline | quote=""figure which stands for naught in the Arabic notation," also "the absence of all quantity considered as quantity," c. 1600, from French ''zéro'' or directly from Italian ''zero'', from Medieval Latin ''zephirum'', from Arabic ''sifr'' "cipher," translation of Sanskrit ''sunya-m'' "empty place, desert, naught"}}.|{{Cite book |last=Menninger |first=Karl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFJHzSIj2u0C |title=Number Words and Number Symbols: A cultural history of numbers |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-486-27096-8 |pages=399–404 |access-date=5 January 2016 }}|{{Cite web |date=December 2011 |title=zero, n. |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/232803?rskey=zGcSoq&result=1&isAdvanced=false |url-status=live |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/65yd7ur9u?url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/232803?rskey=zGcSoq&result=1&isAdvanced=false |archive-date=7 March 2012 |access-date=4 March 2012 |website=[[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]] Online |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |quote="French zéro (1515 in Hatzfeld & Darmesteter) or its source Italian zero, for *zefiro, < Arabic çifr" }}.
}}</ref> In pre-Islamic time the word {{transliteration|ar|ṣifr}} (Arabic {{lang|ar|صفر}}) had the meaning "empty".<ref name=smithsonian/> {{transliteration|ar|Sifr}} evolved to mean zero when it was used to translate {{transliteration|sa|śūnya}} ({{langx|sa|शून्य}}) from India.<ref name="smithsonian">{{multiref2 
| Smithsonian Institution. {{Google books|0_UyAQAAMAAJ|Oriental Elements of Culture in the Occident|page=518}}. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; Harvard University Archives. "Sifr occurs in the meaning of "empty" even in the pre-Islamic time. ... Arabic sifr in the meaning of zero is a translation of the corresponding India sunya."
| {{cite book | first=Jan |last=Gullberg |date=1997|title=Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers|publisher= [[W.W. Norton & Co.]]|isbn= 978-0-393-04002-9 | quote-page= 26|quote = ''Zero derives from Hindu sunya – meaning void, emptiness – via Arabic sifr, Latin cephirum, Italian zevero.''}}
|{{ cite book | first=Robert|last= Logan |date=2010|title=The Poetry of Physics and the Physics of Poetry|publisher=World Scientific | isbn =978-981-4295-92-5|quote-page= 38|quote = The idea of sunya and place numbers was transmitted to the Arabs who translated sunya or "leave a space" into their language as sifr.}} }}</ref> The first known English use of ''zero'' was in 1598.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Merriam Webster online Dictionary |entry=Zero |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206230446/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zero |archive-date=6 December 2017 |entry-url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zero}}</ref>

The Italian mathematician [[Fibonacci]] ({{Circa|1170|1250}}), who grew up in North Africa and is credited with introducing the decimal system to Europe, used the term ''zephyrum''. This became {{lang|it|zefiro}} in Italian, and was then contracted to {{lang|vec|zero}} in Venetian. The Italian word {{lang|it|[[Wikt:zefiro|zefiro]]}} was already in existence (meaning "west wind" from Latin and Greek {{lang|la|[[Zephyrus]]}}) and may have influenced the spelling when transcribing Arabic {{transliteration|ar|ṣifr}}.<ref name="ifrah">{{harvnb|Ifrah|2000|p=589}}.</ref>

===Modern usage===
Depending on the context, there may be different words used for the number zero, or the concept of zero. For the simple notion of lacking, the words "[[nothing]]" (although this is not accurate) and "none" are often used. The British English words [[Names for the number 0 in English#"Nought" and "naught" versus "ought" and "aught"|"nought" or "naught"]], and "[[wikt:nil|nil]]" are also synonymous.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collins – Free online dictionary |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nought}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collins – Free online dictionary, thesaurus and reference materials – nill |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nil}}</ref>

It is often called "oh" in the context of reading out a string of digits, such as [[telephone number]]s, [[street address]]es, [[credit card number]]s, [[military time]], or years. For example, the [[area code]] 201 may be pronounced "two oh one", and the year 1907 is often pronounced "nineteen oh seven". The presence of other digits, indicating that the string contains only numbers, avoids confusion with the letter O. For this reason, systems that include strings with both letters and numbers (such as [[Canadian postal code]]s) may exclude the use of the letter O.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Slang words for zero include "zip", "zilch", "nada", and "scratch".<ref name="thesaurus">{{ cite web | url = http://thesaurus.com/browse/aught#visualthesaurus | title= 'Aught' synonyms | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140823071642/http://thesaurus.com/browse/aught#visualthesaurus |archive-date=23 August 2014 | work= Thesaurus.com | access-date=23 April 2013}}</ref> In the context of sports, "nil" is sometimes used, especially in [[British English]]. Several sports have specific words for a score of zero, such as "[[love (tennis)|love]]" in [[tennis]] – from French {{lang|fr|l'œuf}}, "the egg" – and "[[duck (cricket)|duck]]" in [[cricket (sport)|cricket]], a shortening of "duck's egg". "Goose egg" is another general slang term used for zero.<ref name=thesaurus />