Cryptologia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The scholarly study of secret writing systems, including how codes are made and how they can be broken by others
2. The field devoted to analyzing and understanding encrypted messages and the methods used to conceal information
3. Knowledge of cipher design and decryption techniques, approached as a discipline of research and inquiry into concealed meaning

Etymology: Cryptologia is a journal, but the word behind it is older than most cryptography itself. It is a compound of two Greek elements: "kryptos", meaning "hidden" or "secret" (the source of English "crypt" and "cryptic"), and "-logia", meaning "study of" or "discourse", from "logos". Put together, it names the study of secret writing, the discipline that covers both making codes and breaking them. The term is a modern coinage rather than an ancient one. It was formed in the twentieth century from classical roots, following the same pattern as other scientific names built from Greek parts, and it was used to describe the study of ciphers as an organized field. The journal bearing the name was founded in 1977 and took its title from the same root.