cryptographyn.
/krɪpˈtɒɡrəfi/, U.S. /krɪpˈtɑɡrəfi/ 1. The art or practice of writing in code or cipher; the science of encryption; the branch of cryptology concerned with this (cf. cryptanalysis n.). More generally: the study of codes and ciphers; cryptology.In quot. 1646 as the title of Gustavus Selenus's work Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae Libri IX (1624).quantum cryptography: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > secrecy, concealment > code, cipher > [noun] > art of using
steganography1569
cryptography1646
cryptological1839
cryptology1844
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. iii. 77 Neither..Trithemius in his Steganography, Silenus in his Cryptography, or Nuncius inanimatus.., make any consideration hereof. View more context for this quotation
1654 S. Ward Vindiciæ Academiarum 18 It is enough for him, that Orthography and Cryptography have the same end, and he hath heard that the first is a part of Grammar.
1659 N. B. (title) Stenographie and crytographie [sic]: or the arts of short and secret writing.
1771 London Mag. May 257/2 Cryptography, or the art of writing in cyphers or peculiar characters.
1855 Chambers's Jrnl. 4 134 These decipherers gave the high-sounding names of Cryptography, Cryptology..to their art.
1868 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 175 Now, at the present time, when all is peace and prosperity.., Cryptography is only interesting as a curious study.
1918 Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 24 83 In two hours he succeeded in deciphering it, and thus began his career as an expert in cryptography.
1957 Encycl. Brit. V. 930/1 The..quite important roles which poor cryptography or good cryptanalysis have played in international relations.
1998 G. Cox Assignment: Eternity viii. 99 I studied Romulan cryptography at the Academy, and these transmissions fit those algorithms.
2000 New Scientist 4 Mar. 17/2 As a result security has suffered, says Charles Palmer, manager of network security and cryptography at IBM Research.
2. Coded writing; a particular code or cipher. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > secrecy, concealment > code, cipher > [noun]
cipher1528
steganography1569
polygraphy1593
jargon1594
cryptography1653
code1818
code language1875
society > communication > writing > system of writing > [noun] > disguised or secret writing
cipher1528
scytale1579
polygraphy1593
cryptography1653
1653 J. Webster Academiarum Examen i. 8 The language of the holy Ghost..is but as Hiroglyphicks, and Cryptography, which he can never uncypher, unless God bring his own key.
1658 Sir T. Browne Garden of Cyrus iii, in Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall 121 The strange Cryptography of Gaffarell in his Starrie Booke of Heaven.
1726 S. Lowe Gram. Lat. Tongue (new ed.) Pref. p. ix The Paradigm of Declining a Verb, which I pitch'd upon with design, because to the unthinking it may look like Cryptography.
1780 tr. U. von Troil Lett. on Iceland 300 Our gravers of runes even made use of this cryptography in monuments.
1847 N. Amer. Rev. July 207 They resemble the Rosicrucians in using a kind of cryptography totally destitute of meaning to the unilluminated eye.
1891 Longman's Mag. Dec. 214 Continually exchanging notes in a cryptography of which they only possessed the key.
1908 Amer. Jrnl. Semitic Lang. & Lit. 24 355 Phenomena so marked as those..would be unthinkable in an artificial jargon or cryptography.
1978 World Archaeol. 10 156 I hope that the names are written in cryptography, as I cannot read them.
2003 D. Nigro Dramatis Personae i. v. 34 If you're trying to decipher the cryptography of God's universe, it helps to have a map.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1646