Saturday, 31 December 2016

Etymology of the word 'naughty'

The word 'naughty':

In the late 14th century, the word 'naughty' meant needy or having naught/nothing. This then had a semantic to shift to mean evil, immoral or unclean. These meanings are now obsolete.

From 1869, it meant "sexually promiscuous" which is also obsolete. The more modern meaning of 'naughty' is about disobedience which derived from the meaning between 1530-1750 of "a woman of bad character". It is usually used to describe children. The word 'naughty' can also mean improper, tasteless or indecent in modern day. e.g. A naughty word

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