Although the dot was used at first in India, as noted above, the small circle later replaced it and continues in use to this day. The Arabs, however, did not adopt the {56} circle, since it bore some resemblance to the letter which expressed the number five in the alphabet system.[207] The earliest Arabic zero known is the dot, used in a manuscript of 873 A.D.[208] Sometimes both the dot and the circle are used in the same work, having the same meaning, which is the case in an Arabic MS., an abridged arithmetic of Jamshid,[209] 982 A.H. (1575 A.D.). As given in this work the numerals are [symbols]. The form for 5 varies, in some works becoming [symbol] or [symbol]; [symbol] is found in Egypt and [symbol] appears in some fonts of type. To-day the Arabs use the 0 only when, under European influence, they adopt the ordinary system. Among the Chinese the first definite trace of zero is in the work of Tsin[210] of 1247 A.D. The form is the circular one of the Hindus, and undoubtedly was brought to China by some traveler. The name of this all-important symbol also demands some attention, especially as we are even yet quite undecided as to what to call it. We speak of it to-day as _zero, naught_, and even _cipher_; the telephone operator often calls it _O_, and the illiterate or careless person calls it _aught_. In view of all this uncertainty we may well inquire what it has been called in the past.[211] {57} As already stated, the Hindus called it _['s][=u]nya_, "void."[212] This passed over into the Arabic as _a[s.]-[s.]ifr_ or _[s.]ifr_.[213] When Leonard of Pisa (1202) wrote upon the Hindu numerals he spoke of this character as _zephirum_.[214] Maximus Planudes (1330), writing under both the Greek and the Arabic influence, called it _tziphra_.[215] In a treatise on arithmetic written in the Italian language by Jacob of Florence[216] {58} (1307) it is called _zeuero_,[217] while in an arithmetic of Giovanni di Danti of Arezzo (1370) the word appears as _ceuero_.[218] Another form is _zepiro_,[219] which was also a step from _zephirum_ to zero.[220]