In order to fully understand the term decipher that concerns us now, it is necessary to start with its etymological origin. In this case, we can state that it comes from French, exactly from the word “déchiffrer”, which is the result of the sum of two components:
-The prefix “des-”, which is used to indicate denial.
-The verb “chiffrer”, which can be translated as “encrypt”.
The verb decipher refers to the action of discovering the content that is written in unknown characters or codes . The message in question is unintelligible until someone manages to decipher it. The concept of deciphering is also used in relation to clarifying what is difficult to understand .
For example: "Investigators are trying to decipher a manuscript found at the crime scene" , "The government will force public service companies to issue invoices that are easy to decipher" , "Detective, when do you think you will be able to decipher the enigma?" ” .
The idea of decoding is often confused with the notion of decoding or decoding . Deciphering something involves resorting to various techniques to interpret the information that is expressed through an unknown code. Decoding, on the other hand, consists of applying rules for the interpretation of a known code.
The Rosetta Stone is an example of a text that could be deciphered. This stele , created in 196 BC , presents a decree that combines Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic writing and ancient Greek.
The hieroglyphic and cuneiform writings of the Mayans, Olmecs, Hittites and other peoples have been deciphered thanks to the research of linguists and philologists such as Georg Friedrich Grotefend , Jean-François Champollion and Yuri Knorozov .
Precisely the work of these people has allowed the hieroglyphs to be deciphered. And that leads us to know today curiosities to read such as that the drawing of a duck means "son", that the drawing of a cane means "cane" or that three lines together vertically are used to indicate the plural of a word. .
These researchers also deciphered and discovered other curiosities such as the following:
-The hieroglyphs can be read in any direction, although the direction of the figures that appear are what determine the meaning of the reading in each of them.
-To know what function a word performs, you only have to look at the sign that highlights its semantic work.
-The Egyptian alphabet has 28 consonants and no vowels.
In colloquial language , deciphering is related to understanding something that is complex , whether due to its characteristics or an intention to conceal it: “The prosecutor seeks to decipher the complex network set up to launder money,” “I am trying to decipher what the doctor wrote.” in this recipe” , “The methodology for constructing the pyramids is a mystery that science has not yet been able to decipher” .
In the same way, the term decipher is also used colloquially to carry out what is the attempt to find the solution to a riddle such as: “What is it that you can find once in a minute, twice in a moment and not once in a hundred years?”