nought

English

Alternative forms

• naught, nowt

Etymology

From Middle English nought, noght, noȝt, from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ā-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not anything". Equivalent to ne +‎ ought or ne +‎ a +‎ wight. Doublet of naught and not.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɔːt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːt

• Audio (US)

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Noun

nought (plural noughts)

1. Nothing; something which does not exist.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     "It is the truth; naught have I hidden from thee, Kallikrates."

2. A thing or person of no worth or value; nil.
3. (UK) Not any quantity of number; zero; the score of no points in a game.

   0.4 — nought point four / zero point four

4. (UK) The figure or character representing, or having the shape of, zero.

Derived terms

• bring to nought
• come to nought
• dreadnought
• more often than nought
• noughties
• noughty
• set at nought

Translations

zero

• Bulgarian: нула (bg) f (nula)
• Catalan: zero (ca) m
• Dutch: nul (nl)
• Esperanto: nul (eo)
• Estonian: null (et)
• Finnish: nolla (fi)
• French: zéro (fr)
• Galician: cero (gl) m, ren (gl), res (gl)
• German: null (de)
• Italian: zero (it)
• Middle English: nought
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: null (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: null m or n

• Russian: ноль (ru) m (nolʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: neoni m or f
• Spanish: cero (es) m

Adjective

nought

1. (obsolete) Good for nothing; worthless.
   • 1611, Authorized King James translation of Proverbs 20:14:

     It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

2. Wicked, immoral.

Verb

nought (third-person singular simple present noughts, present participle noughting, simple past and past participle noughted)

1. To abase, to set at nought.
   • 1393, Julian of Norwich, translated by Grace Warrack, Revelations of Divine Love, published 1901:

     In this naked word sin, our Lord brought to my mind, generally, all that is not good, and the shameful despite and the utter noughting that He bare for us in this life, and His dying; and all the pains and passions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily; (for we be all partly noughted, and we shall be noughted following our Master, Jesus, till we be full purged, that is to say, till we be fully noughted of our deadly flesh and of all our inward affections which are not very good;)

   • 1983, Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book, page 25:

     The nought which is you has devoured the style and been sustained for a while as a non-you until the style is emptied out by the noughting self.

   • 2001, William Desmond, Ethics and the Between, page 507:

     Your usefulness is zero, your worth zero, and as zero you deserve to be treated as nothing, and in the extreme, noughted.

   • 2003, Wu Wei Wei, The Tenth Man: The Great Joke (which Made Lazarus Laugh), →ISBN, page 81:

     What is the use of noughting yourself? Who is noughting who? What is the use of searching for yourself? Who is searching for who? There are not two of you ! You cannot find yourself, or the absence of yourself.

Adverb

nought

1. To no extent; in no way; not at all.
2. Not.

Pronoun

nought

1. Nothing; zero.

See also

• naught
• ought

References

• “nought”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Notes:

Anagrams

• hognut, hotgun, hutong

Middle English

Alternative forms

• naȝt, naught, nauȝt, nawght, nawȝt, nofte, noght, nogt, nogthe, noȝt, noth, noughte, noughtt, nouȝt, nouȝte, nouȝth, nouȝthe, nouht, noust, nout, nouth, nowght, nowȝt, nowhte, nowt
• naht, naut, nawiht, nohht, noht (Early Middle English)

Etymology

From Old English nāwiht, nōwiht, from Proto-West Germanic *naiwwiht; equivalent to ne +‎ ought.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɔu̯xt/, /nau̯xt/, /nɔxt/, /naxt/

Pronoun

nought

1. nothing, none

Descendants

• English: nought, naught, nowt
• Scots: nout
• Yola: noucht

References

• “nought, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Adverb

nought

1. not (negates the accompanying verb)

   Þei ne bileveden hire nought. ― They didn't believe her.

2. not (to no degree, extent, or way)

   Þou art nought weyke. ― You aren't weak.

Descendants

• English: nought, naught, nowt

References

• “nought, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Adjective

nought

1. iniquitous, wicked
2. valueless, worthless
3. ineffectual, depleted
4. powerless, useless
5. null and void, invalid
6. (rare) unfitting, improper

Descendants

• English: nought, naught
• Scots: nocht

References

• “nought, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Noun

nought (uncountable)

1. nothing, nought
2. nothingness, void
3. (rare) evil, iniquity
4. (rare) That which is worthless
5. (rare) zero (number)

Descendants

• English: nought, naught, nowt
• Scots: nocht

References

• “nought, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “nought, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Conjunction

nought

1. and not

References

• “nought, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.