Naught (not “nought”)
. Naught is Ne (negative), aught (anything). Saxon náht, which is ne áht (not anything).
“A headless man had a letter [o] to write.
He who read it [naught] had lost his sight.
The dumb repeated it [naught] word for word.
And deaf was the man who listened and heard [naught].”
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.