naughty
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From late Middle English noughti, naughty (“evil, immoral, wicked”),[1] from nought (“evil, immoral”)[2] + -ī̆ (suffix forming adjectives).[3] Analysable as naught + -y.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈnɔːti/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈnɔti/, [ˈnɔɾi]
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ˈnɑti/, [ˈnɑɾi]
Audio (US, cot–caught merger): (file)
- Rhymes: -ɔːti
- Hyphenation: naugh‧ty
- Homophones: knotty (cot–caught merger); noddy (cot–caught merger, flapping)
Adjective
[edit]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, [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:
- 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.
- (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, 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.
Alternative forms
[edit]- noughty (archaic or obsolete)
Synonyms
[edit]- (immoral, sexually provocative): dirty
- (mischievous): mischievous
Antonyms
[edit]- (antonym(s) of “immoral; cheeky”): nice
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]bad; tending to misbehave or act badly
|
risqué, sexually suggestive
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
[edit]naughty (third-person singular simple present naughties, present participle naughtying, simple past and past participle naughtied)
- To perform sexual acts upon.
References
[edit]- ^ “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.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -y
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔːti
- Rhymes:English/ɔːti/2 syllables
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English verbs