different between aught vs nil

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: ôt, IPA^(key): /??t/
• Rhymes: -??t
• (US) enPR: ôt, IPA^(key): /?t/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: ät, IPA^(key): /?t/

Etymology 1

From Middle English aught, ought, from Old English ?ht, from ? (“always", "ever”) + wiht (“thing", "creature”). More at aye, wight.

Alternative forms

• owt

Pronoun

aught

1. anything whatsoever, any part.
   • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene ii^[1]:

     [...] wouldst thou aught with me?

   • But go, my son, and see if aught be wanting.

   • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London, Oxford University Press, 1973. § 29.

     […] to other objects, which for aught we know, may be only in appearance similar.

   • 1886-88, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night:

     But as soon as her son espied her, bowl in hand, he thought that haply something untoward had befallen her, but he would not ask of aught until such time as she had set down the bowl, when she acquainted him with that which had occurred […]

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, chapter 5

     His life among these fierce apes had been happy; for his recollection held no other life, nor did he know that there existed within the universe aught else than his little forest and the wild jungle animals with which he was familiar.

   • 1977: J. R. R. Tolkien, Silmarillion, Ainulindalë

     There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made.

Adverb

aught (not comparable)

1. (archaic) At all, in any degree, in any respect.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 5 scene 1

     [...] and if your love

     Can labour aught in sad invention,

     Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb,

     And sing it to her bones [...]

References

• aught in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Etymology 2

Meaning of "zero" by confusion with naught. Used amongst those who were once called "non-U" speakers of English.

Noun

aught (plural aughts)

1. whit, the smallest part, iota.
2. (archaic) zero
3. The digit zero as the decade in years. For example, aught-nine for 1909 or 2009.

Usage notes

The use of aught and ought to mean "zero" is very much proscribed as the word aught originally meant the opposite of naught: "anything". This may be due to misanalysis, or may simply be the result of speakers confusing the meanings of aught and naught due to similar-sounding phonemes.

Translations

See also

• naught
• owt

Etymology 3

From Middle English aught (“estimation, regard, reputation”), from Old English æht (“estimation, consideration”), from Proto-West Germanic *ahtu. Cognate with Dutch acht (“attention, regard, heed”), German Acht (“attention, regard”). Also see ettle.

Noun

aught (uncountable)

1. (regional) Estimation.

2. (regional) Of importance or consequence (in the phrase "of aught").

3. (regional, rare, obsolete) Esteem, respect.

Usage notes

In the first sense, generally found in the phrase "in one's aught" as in? "In my aught, this play ain't worth the candle". In the second sense, generally found in the phrase "of aught" as in? "nothing of aught has happened since you've been away, Sir". In the third sense, generally found in the phrase "a man of aught", or rarely in the more archaic phrase "to show somebody or something (some) aught" as in? "show your mother some aught, son".

References

• www.duden.de - Acht
• The Middle English Dictionary
• The Dictionary of the Scots Language
• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Etymology 4

From Middle English aught, ought, from Old English ?ht, from Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“possessions, property”).

Alternative forms

• ought

Noun

aught (plural aughts)

1. Property; possession
2. Duty; place; office

Verb

aught (third-person singular simple present aughts, present participle aughting, simple past and past participle aughted)

1. to own, possess
2. to owe, be obliged or obligated to

Adjective

aught (comparative more aught, superlative most aught)

1. possessed of

Etymology 5

From Middle English ahte, from Old English eahta (“eight”). More at eight.

Numeral

aught

1. Obsolete or dialectal form of eight.

Anagrams

• ghaut

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English ought.

Pronoun

aught

1. any, anything

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN

English

Etymology

From Latin n?l, a contraction of nihil, nihilum (“nothing”). See nihilism.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Noun

nil (usually uncountable, plural nils)

1. Nothing; zero.
   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.19:

     As to Aristotle's influence on him, we are left free to conjecture whatever seems to us most plausible. For my part, I should suppose it nil.

Translations

Determiner

nil

1. No, not any.
   • 1982, Gavin Lyall, Conduct of Major Maxim, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd:

     But after two or three hours and nil results, you have to accept that the trail is cold and you can't justify that level of manpower.

Related terms

• nihilism

See also

• null
• nil desperandum

Anagrams

• -lin, Lin, Lin., lin, lin.

Golin

Alternative forms

• nl, n?

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [n???], [n?], [??n??l]

Noun

nil

1. liquid; water

Derived terms

References

• Gordon Bunn, Golin Grammar (1974)

Interlingua

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nil/

Pronoun

nil (indefinite)

1. nothing

Latin

Etymology

Clipping of nihil, in turn from nihilum, from ne- (“not”) + hilum (“a hilum; a trifle, a bagatelle”), or unknown origin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ni?l/, [ni???]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /nil/, [nil]

Noun

n?l n (indeclinable)

1. (chiefly poetic) nothing

   Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma. Quam ergo mercedem accipies? Nil nisi te.

   You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward therefore will you receive? Nothing unless it is you.

References

• nil in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• nil in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Tok Pisin

Etymology

English needle.

Noun

nil

1. needle
2. thorn