Etymo

naughty

Mischievous or badly behaved.

Played on · Day 20 · word 4 of 5

Before it meant that.

How naughty reached English

oldest first

Simplified path. The puzzle showed the main steps; the full route is being checked.

  1. Middle English

    noughti

    ‘Needy; also morally bad’

  2. English

    naughty

    ‘Mischievous; badly behaved’

The story of naughty

Naughty is built on the nought family. Middle English recorded a needy or having-nothing sense alongside moral descriptions. Later mischievous uses are often milder than the older moral ones, but the history is not a simple single-file replacement of meanings.

The question asks for one recorded non-behavioural sense, not an assertion that poverty was the sole first meaning.

Sources

Related

Nought is still recognisable inside a word whose everyday meaning has travelled far.

More words from 25 September 2026

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