Fun fact: zero and numerals were not invented by the Arabs. The Arabs learnt the concept & use of mathematical zero, numerals, decimal system, mathematical calculations, etc. from the ancient Hindus/Indians. And from the Arabs, the Europeans learnt it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu-Arabic_numeral_system

Persian scholar Al Khwarizmi translated and used the Hindu/Indian numerals (including concept of mathematical zero) and "Sulba Sutras" (Hindu/Indian methods of mathematical problem solving) into the text Al-Jabr, which the Europeans translated as "Algebra" (yup, that branch of mathematics that all schoolkids worldwide learn from kindergarten).

In Tamil, it still means a zero. It's usually pronounced like 'cyber' though, because Tamil doesn't have the 'f'/'ph' sound natively.

lol I never made that connection — in Turkish, zero is sıfır, which does sound a lot like cipher. Also, password is şifre, which again sounds similar. Looking online, apparently the path is sifr (Arabic, meaning zero) -> cifre (French, first meaning zero, then any numeral, then coded message) -> şifre (Turkish, code/cipher)

Dutch too: "Cijfer", German, "Ziffer", French: "Chifre", Spanish: "Cifra".