Naughty reply

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35624>:

<< I see that Julie Walters has referred in a recent interview to the
years 2000-2009 as "the Noughties," an expression I've never
encountered before. >>

I remain fond of the theory that the decade 1900-1909 was the Oughts
and the decade 2000-2009 is the Oh-Ohs. While the first years of this
decade was pronounced Two Thousand, the rest are like, this year is
two-oh-oh-eight. (The Oughts when people oughted to have behaved like
Victorians; the Oh-Ohs when we have a lot to say Oh-Oh about.)

I always thought that Naughty came from Naught and that Naught is the
same as Nought. I'm far from being a Brit, but I pronounce them the
same, with the awww sound, also found in cough and coffin. This is
different from how I pronounce knot and not, with the aah sound. This
is quite different from the ah sound, as in gnat.

In the famous 'Mary, marry, merry', I pronounce Mary and Merry the
same, with an eh sound, and I pronounce Marry differently, I think
with the aah sound, but it's hard to compare vowels with R to vowels
without R. Murray and Myrrh have yet a different sound.

American Heritage Dictionary
<http://www.bartleby.com/61/27/N0032700.html> says 'Naughty' comes
from << Middle English noughti, wicked, from nought, nothing, evil,
from Old English nwiht, nothing. See naught. >>

'Naught' <http://www.bartleby.com/61/26/N0032600.html> 
<< VARIANT FORMS: also nought
NOUN: 1. Nonexistence; nothingness. 2. The figure 0; a cipher; a zero. 
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old English nwiht : n, no; see ne in
Appendix I + wiht, thing; see wekti- in Appendix I.>>

The entry for 'Naughty' has a long comment: << The word naughty at one
time was an all-purpose word similar to bad. During the 16th century
one could use naughty to mean "unhealthy, unpleasant, bad (with
respect to weather), vicious (of an animal), inferior, or bad in
quality" (one could say "very naughtie figes" or "naughty corrupt
water"). All of these senses have disappeared, however, and naughty is
now used mainly in contexts involving mischief or indecency. This
recalls its early days in Middle English (with the form noughti), when
the word was restricted to the senses "evil, hostile, ineffectual, and
needy." Middle English noughti, first recorded in the last quarter of
the 14th century, was derived from nought, which primarily meant
"nothing" but was also used as a noun meaning "evil" and as an
adjective meaning such things as "immoral, weak, useless." Thus
naughty, in a sense, has risen from nothing, but its fortunes used to
be better than they are at present. >>

On-Line Etymology Dictionary
<http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=naughty> seems to agree:
<< naughty - 1377, naugti "needy, having nothing," from O.E. nawiht
(see naught). Sense of "wicked, evil, morally wrong" is attested from
1529. The more tame main modern sense of "disobedient" (especially of
children) is attested from 1633. A woman of bad character c.1530-1750
might be called a naughty pack. >>

I'm shocked. Up til now, I had thought (rhymes with naught *tee-hee*)
that 'naughty figs' were worth naught and a naughty child obeyed
naught (no rule), respected naught (no authority), feared naught (no
punishment). I hadn't realised that 'naught' ever meant 'evil'.
Imagine the conversation "What are you doing? Nothing." with that
definition.

P. S. If I said 'nowt', I'd use the ow sound, like in 'now'.