naught

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English naught, also naht, noht, noght and nought,^[2][1] inherited from Old English nāwiht (“nothing”), also nōwiht,^[3][2][4][5] literally "no whit",^[3][6] formed from Old English nā (“no”) + wiht (“thing, creature, being”).^[3][7][8][9] The first element goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ne- (“not”).^[3][7] The OED allows either that analysis or a formation from ne (“not”) and aught,^[10] which is how Wiktionary and Johnson explain it.^[1][11] Similar compounds are Old Saxon neowiht, Old High German niwiht and Gothic 𐌽𐌹 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍃 (ni waihts);^[2][3] Etymonline adds Dutch niet and German nicht.^[3] The spelling nought continues the variant with o, which Collins and the Shorter Oxford derive from the same negative and ōwiht (“something”),^[12][5] although the OED notes that Middle English forms with o may also come from nāht by rounding of the vowel.^[10] Skeat calls not a doublet.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nothing, not anything: in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care,^[10] dated c. 897 in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[14] Barnhart dates nōwiht to about 830,^[2] and the OED's earliest record of that form is the Vespasian Psalter.^[10] The same text of Alfred's also has the noun for wickedness.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From "nothing" Old English moved to fixed phrases: to bring to naught first meant to reduce to nothing and destroy, later to frustrate, and to come to naught first meant to perish, later to fail.^[10] For naught, in vain, is recorded from about 1225,^[10] and in the sense "without payment" from 1568.^[10] Used as a predicate, the noun passed into an adjective, "worthless, bad", already in Old English;^[10][8][5] by the 16th century it had narrowed to "morally bad, wicked".^[3][15] That job then fell to the derivative naughty,^[3][8][16] and Johnson noted in 1773 that the adjective was hardly used except in ludicrous language.^[11] The arithmetical use, "zero, cipher", appears about 1430 under the spelling nought,^[14][3] and the form naught is recorded for the figure 0 from 1649,^[15][5] and in the United States for no quantity at all from 1864.^[15] The score of no points in a game is recorded as nought from 1862.^[14] The OED explains that the spellings with o and with a stayed apart in Middle English because they sounded different, but that a pronunciation of -ough- like -augh- entered standard English during the 17th century, after which the two sounded alike; it finds no clear difference of meaning from the Old English period on.^[10] Dialect kept further forms, Scots nocht and northern nowt.^[5] A rare verb "to annihilate" has been used in theology and poetry in the 20th century.^[10][5]

Timeline

• c. 897 – nothing; also wickedness, evil (obsolete by 1649).^[14][10]
• Old English – to bring to naught, to destroy, and to come to naught, to perish.^[10]
• Old English – as an adjective, worthless, bad.^[5][3]
• c. 1225 – for naught, in vain.^[10]
• c. 1430 – the spelling nought for the arithmetical zero.^[14] Etymonline dates this meaning to the early 15th century.^[3]
• 1536 – morally bad, wicked.^[15]
• 1542 – to call all to naught, to denounce with passion.^[10]
• 1568 – for naught, without payment or reward.^[10]
• 1649 – the figure 0.^[15][5]
• 1862 – nought, a score of no points in a game.^[14]
• 1864 – in the United States, no quantity, zero.^[15]
• 1913 – to bring to naught, annihilate.^[14] The revised OED has its first example of this sense in 1958.^[10]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (archaic, literary) Nothing; not anything: Their long search had yielded naught. Also spelled nought.^{[12][4][10][5]}
2. bring to naught: to ruin or frustrate, with come to naught for failing or ending in nothing.^[4][10][5]
3. set at naught: to disregard or scorn.^[12][5][11]
4. for naught: in vain; also, without payment.^[10][5]

Noun

1. The figure 0, zero or no quantity, usually spelled nought in Britain, with naught chiefly American: Multiply by ten and add a nought.^{[12][4][5][15]}
2. (archaic, rare) Nothingness; what does not exist.^[12][4][10]
3. (obsolete, Old English–1649) Wickedness; evil, moral wrong.^[10][4][5]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Of no worth; bad or unfit.^[4][12][5]
2. (archaic) Morally bad, wicked.^{[12][15][5][11]}

Adverb

1. (archaic, literary) Not at all: His threats availed naught.^[12]

Verb

1. (rare) To bring to nothing; to annihilate, chiefly in theology and poetry.^[10][5]

Word family

• naughty

Related words

• nought
• aught
• not
• no
• wight
• whit
• nix

Usage notes

Fowler (1926) wrote that the variation in spelling goes back to Old English, and that the distinction by then usually drawn was only a matter of convenience: nought as the name of the cipher 0, naught for the archaic, poetic and rhetorical uses meaning "nothing".^[3] Collins treats naught as archaic or literary, and as a chiefly American spelling of nought, the digit 0.^[12] The OED finds that the two spellings varied freely down to the 20th century, sometimes between editions of one work.^[10] Johnson had called the spelling nought common but improper.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul