The story
- Old English · inherited fromnōwiht
- Middle English · inherited fromnought
- English todaynought
From Middle English nought, noght, noȝt, from Old English nōwiht, nāwiht, which in turn comes from ne-ā-wiht, which was a phrase used as an emphatic "no", meaning "not anything". Equivalent to ne + ought or ne + a + wight. Doublet of naught and not.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.