different between character vs nought

English

Etymology

From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “type, nature, character”), from ??????? (kharáss?, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??(?)kt?/, /?kæ?(?)kt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt?/
• Hyphenation: char?ac?ter

Noun

character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)

1. (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
2. (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.

3. (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.

   • A man of […] thoroughly subservient character

4. (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.

5. (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.

6. (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech

     It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye.

7. (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
8. (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
9. (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
10. (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.

11. (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
12. (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.

13. (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.

    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.

14. (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
15. (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.

Usage notes

Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Pages starting with “character”.

Translations

Verb

character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)

1. (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.

See also

• codepoint
• font
• glyph
• letter
• symbol
• rune
• pictogram

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /k?a?rak.ter/, [k?ä??äkt??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ka?rak.ter/, [k????kt??r]

Noun

character m (genitive charact?ris); third declension

1. branding iron
2. brand (made by a branding iron)
3. characteristic, mark, character, style

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Hungarian: karakter
• Galician: caritel; ? carácter
• Irish: carachtar
• Italian: carattere
• Old French: caractere
  • ? English: character
  • French: caractère
• Polish: charakter
  • ? Russian: ????????? (xarákter)
• Portuguese: caractere, carácter
• Sicilian: caràttiri
• Spanish: carácter

References

• character in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Noun

character m (plural characteres)

1. Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).

English

Alternative forms

• naught, nowt

Etymology

From Middle English nought, noght, no?t, from Old English n?wiht, n?wiht (nay +? a +? wight), which in turn comes from ne-?-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not a thing". Eventually this was reduced into nought, nawt and then not. Doublet of naught.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??t/
• Rhymes: -??t

Noun

nought (plural noughts)

1. Nothing; something which does not exist.
2. A thing or person of no worth or value; nil.
3. (Britain) Not any quantity of number; zero; the score of no points in a game.

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

Derived terms

• bring to nought
• come to nought
• dreadnought
• noughties
• noughty
• set at nought

Translations

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, 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

• hognut, hotgun, hutong

Middle English

Alternative forms

• naught, nawght, na?t, nau?t, naw?t, noght, noughte, noughtt, nowght, no?t, nou?t, nou?te, now?t, nou?th, nou?the, nouht, nowhte, noust, nofte, nogt, nogthe, nowt, nout, nouth, noth
• (early) noht, naht, nohht, nawiht, naut

Etymology

From Old English n?wiht, n?wiht; equivalent to ne +? ought.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?u?xt/, /nau?xt/, /n?xt/, /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)

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

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.