FromMiddle Englishaught,ought, fromOld Englishāht, āwiht, fromā(“always", "ever”) +wiht(“thing", "creature”). More atwight.
aught
- (archaic or dialectal)Anything whatsoever, any part.
foraught I know/care
c.1596–1598 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene ii]:[…] wouldst thouaught with me?
1712 (date written),[Joseph] Addison,Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published1713,→OCLC, Act I, scene v,page 2:But go, my son, and see ifaught be wanting.
1885–1888,Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor,Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume(please specify the volume),[London]: […] Burton Club […],→OCLC: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 ofaught until such time as she had set down the bowl, when she acquainted him with that which had occurred[…]
1912 October,Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, inThe All-Story, New York, N.Y.:Frank A. Munsey Co.,→OCLC; republished as chapter 5, inTarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.:A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company,June 1914,→OCLC: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 universeaught else than his little forest and the wild jungle animals with which he was familiar.
1977,J. R. R. Tolkien, “Ainulindalë”, inSilmarillion: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 beforeaught else was made.
aught (notcomparable)
- (archaic) At all, in any degree, in any respect.
1598–1599 (first performance),William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act V, scene i]:[…] and if your love
Can labouraught in sad invention,
Hang her anepitaph upon her tomb,
And sing it to her bones [...]
aught (pluralaughts)
- (archaic)Whit, the smallest part,iota.
- Synonyms:bit,jot;see alsoThesaurus:modicum
Rebracketing ofanaught.
aught (pluralaughts)
- (sometimes proscribed)Zero.
- The digit zero.
FromMiddle Englishaught(“estimation, regard, reputation”), fromOld Englishæht(“estimation, consideration”), fromProto-West Germanic*ahtu. Cognate withDutchacht(“attention, regard, heed”),GermanAcht(“attention, regard”). Also seeettle.
aught (uncountable)
- (regional)Estimation.
in myaught
- (regional) Of importance or consequence (in the phrase "of aught").
an event ofaught
- (regional, rare, obsolete)Esteem,respect.
- a man ofaught ―a man of high esteem, an important or well-respected man
Show someaught to your elders, boy.
In the first sense, generally found in the phrase "in one's aught" as inː "In my aught, this play ain't worth the candle". In the second sense, generally found in the phrase "of aught" as inː "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 inː "show your mother some aught, son".
Originally the past tense ofowe.
aught (third-person singular simple presentaughts,present participleaughting,simple past and past participleaughted)
- Obsolete or dialectal form ofought
FromMiddle Englishahte, fromOld Englisheahta(“eight”). More ateight.
aught
- Obsolete or dialectal form ofeight.
FromMiddle Englishaught, fromOld Englishāht,ōht, shortening ofāwiht,ōwiht.
aught
- any,anything
1867,GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:Geeth heaaught?- Doth he getany oranything?
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), 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, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page23
aught
- alternative form ofayght(“eight”)
2005,Jacob Poole Of Growtown - And the Yola Dialect[1]:
