nought

English

Alternative forms

• naught, nocht (Scottish), nowt

Etymology

Middle English noght, from Old English nōwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ō-wiht which was a phrase used as an emphatic no meaning "not a thing". Eventually this degenerated into 'nought', 'nawt' and then 'not'.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒt

• Audio (US)

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Noun

nought (plural noughts)

1. Nothing; something which does not exist.
2. A thing or person of no worth or value; nil.
3. Not any quantity of number; zero; the score of no points in a game.
4. The figure or character representing, or having the shape of, zero.

Derived terms

• noughties
• noughty
• dreadnought

Translations

zero

Esperanto: nul (eo)

Russian: ноль (ru) (nol') m. Scottish Gaelic: neoni (gd) m. and f.

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Fuller:

     No man can be stark nought at once.

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, Revelations of Divine Love, translated by Grace Warrack, 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.

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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Notes:

Anagrams

• hutong