different between nought vs aught

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.

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