Nought
Pronunciation
- IPA: /nÉ”Ët/
- Rhymes: -É”Ët
Origin
Middle English noght, from Old English nÅwiht, which in turn comes from ne-Å-wiht which was a phrase used as an emphatic no meaning "not a thing". Eventually this degenerated into 'nought', 'nawt' and then 'not'.
Guy Deutscher, The Unfolding of Language, page 98.
Derived terms
Adjective
nought- (obsolete) Good for nothing; worthless.
- 1611, Authorized King James Version translation of 20:14:It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
- Wicked, immoral.
- unknown date Fuller:No man can be stark nought at once.
Verb
- To abase, to set at nought.
- 1393, Julian of Norwich, , translated by Grace Warrack, 1901In 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, : The Last Self-Help Book, page 25The 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 507Your 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 1591810078), 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- To no extent; in no way; not at all.
- Not.
Pronoun
nought- Nothing; zero.