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 Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:55 am
aught • AWT • pronoun
1 : anything
*2 : all, everything
Example Sentence:
"Xury said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught I know." (Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe)
Did you know?
"If you know aught which does behove my knowledge / Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not / In ignorant concealment," Polixenes begs Camillo in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, employing the "anything" sense of "aught." Shakespeare didn't coin the pronoun "aught," which has been a part of the English language since before the 12th century, but he did put it to frequent use. Writers today may be less likely to use "aught" than were their literary predecessors, but the pronoun does continue to turn up occasionally. "Aught" can also be a noun meaning "zero," and for a while the phrase "the aughts" was bandied about as a proposed label for the decade that began in the year 2000.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:12 pm
Here's an example of the "zero" meaning of the word:
16 Shells From A 30-6 by Bob Seger
Plugged 16 shells from a thirty-aught-six
And the black crow flew through
A hole in the sky
And I spent all my buttons on an old pack mule
And I made me a ladder ftom a pawn shop marimba
And I leaned it up against a dandelion tree
Leaned it up against a dandelion tree
Leaned it up against a dandelion tree
Well I cooked them feathers on the iron spit
And I filled me a sachel full of old pig corn
And I beat me a Billy from an old french horn
And kicked that mule to the top of the tree
Kicked that mule to the top of the tree
Blew me a hole 'bout the size of a kickdrum
And I cut me a switch from a long branch elbow
I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'
Black crow 16 shells from a thirty-aught-six
Whittle you into kindlin'
Black crow 16 shells from a thirty-aught-six
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:43 am
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Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:41 pm
I suppose naught is simply the negative of aught.
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Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 6:02 am
Everything is alright on Gaia.
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