nought 的詞源

中古英語來自古英語的 nowiht，意為「無物」，是 nawiht 的變體（參見 naught）。「零，零值」的意思出現於15世紀初。表達 for nought「徒勞無功」的用法可追溯至約1200年。短語 come to nought 出現於15世紀初（become to naught, ycome to naught 則可追溯至約1300年）。

naught, nought. The variation of spelling is not a modern accident, but descends from Old English. The distinction, however, now usually observed between the senses borne by each form is a matter of convenience only, & by no means universally recognized. This distinction is that nought is simply the name of the cipher 0, while the archaic, poetic, & rhetorical uses in which the word is substituted for nothing in any other than the arithmetical sense now prefer naught. [Fowler, "Modern English Usage," 1926]

naught, nought. 這兩種拼寫的變化並非現代的偶然，而是源自古英語。然而，現在通常區分這兩種形式所承載的意義僅僅是出於方便，並非普遍認可。這一區分是：nought 僅僅是數字0的名稱，而古老、詩意和修辭上的用法中，除了算術意義外，現在更喜歡用 naught 來替代 nothing。[Fowler, "Modern English Usage," 1926]