naughty
English
Etymology
From Middle English noughti, naughty (“evil, immoral, wicked; bungling, ineffectual; in want, needy; evil or hostile person”) [and other forms],[1] from nought (“evil, immoral; of poor quality, worthless; unworthy; inappropriate, unsuitable; impotent, powerless, weak; useless; of an agreement, decree, or obligation: null, void; trivial; diseased”)[2] + -ī̆ (suffix forming adjectives).[3] Nought is derived from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht (“nothing”), from Proto-West Germanic *naiwwiht (“nothing”). The English word is analysable as naught + -y.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈnɔːti/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈnɔti/, /ˈnɑti/
- Homophone: knotty (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
Audio (US cot-caught merger) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːti
- Hyphenation: naugh‧ty
Adjective
naughty (comparative naughtier, superlative naughtiest)
- Mischievous; tending to misbehave or act badly (especially of a child). [from 17th c.]
- Some naughty boys at school hid the teacher's lesson notes.
- Sexually provocative; now in weakened sense, risqué, cheeky. [from 19th c.]
- I bought some naughty lingerie for my honeymoon.
- If I see you send another naughty email to your friends, you will be forbidden from using the computer!
- (now rare, archaic) Evil, wicked, morally reprehensible. [from 15th c.]
- 1589, John Bucke, Instructions for the Use of the Beades
- my proneſſe to ſinne, and naughty appetites and desires, woulde drawe me headlong to the pitte of hell
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:
- […] How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
- 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], OCLC 879551664:
- Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomack differ little or nothing from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unappliable to occasions of evill.
- 1589, John Bucke, Instructions for the Use of the Beades
- (obsolete) Bad, worthless, substandard. [16th–19th c.]
- 1542, Andrew Boorde, The First Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge:
- In Cornwall is two speches, the one is naughty Englysshe, and the other is Cornysshe speche.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Jeremiah 24:2:
- One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
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Alternative forms
- noughty (archaic or obsolete)
Synonyms
- (immoral, sexually provocative): dirty
- (mischievous): mischievous
Antonyms
- (immoral; cheeky): nice
Derived terms
- naughtily
- naughtiness
- naughty bit
- naughty step
Translations
bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
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risqué, sexually suggestive
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
naughty (third-person singular simple present naughties, present participle naughtying, simple past and past participle naughtied)
- To perform sexual acts upon.
References
- “noughtī, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “nought, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “-ī̆, suf.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.