nowt

English

A wooden shack in Upton, Berkshire Downs, England, UK, for selling cider. At the time the photograph was taken, the shack was closed and had a sign stating "Nowt left in here" (indicating to potential thieves that nothing of value is left in the shack while it is unattended).

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /naʊt/, [naʊʔ]
  • (West Riding of Yorkshire) IPA^(key): [nɔʊʔ], [nɒʊʔ]
• Rhymes: -aʊt
• (Midlands) IPA^(key): /nəʊt/, [nəʊʔ]
• Rhymes: -əʊt
• Homophone: note

Etymology 1

Dialectal pronunciation of naught. Akin to West Frisian neat (“nothing”), German nichts (“nothing”).

Pronoun

nowt

1. (Northern England) Naught, nothing.
   • 2004, “It Was Supposed to Be So Easy”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), A Grand Don’t Come For Free, performed by The Streets:

     Today I have achieved absolutely nowt / In just being out of the house, I've lost out

Synonyms

• noot (Geordie)

Noun

nowt (uncountable)

1. (Northern England, Sussex, Berkshire) Naught, nothing.

Derived terms

• shy bairns get nowt
• there's nowt so queer as folk
• you don't get owt for nowt

 

Adverb

nowt (not comparable)

1. (Northern England) Naught, nothing.

Antonyms

• owt

Etymology 2

From Middle English nowte, noute, nawte, naute, borrowed from Old Norse naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą. Cognate with Old English nēat, English neat.

Alternative forms

• nolt (dialectal or obsolete)

Noun

nowt (plural nowts)

1. (Scotland and Northern England) An ox.
2. (Scotland and Northern England) A herd of cattle.
3. (figurative, Scotland and Northern England) A dumb, crass, or clumsy person, or a person who is difficult or stubborn.
   • 1929, James William Marriott, editor, The Best One-act Plays of 1931‎^[1], G.G. Harrap, published 1932, page 162:

     A hunner guineas for the heid o' that nowt Renwick, and him no' sae very far awa' frae your very nose at this meenit.

References

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “NOWT”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• “nowt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “nowt”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “nowt”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[2], archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• “Nowt”, in Palgrave’s Word List: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[3], archived from the original on 2024-09-05, from F[rancis] M[ilnes] T[emple] Palgrave, A List of Words and Phrases in Everyday Use by the Natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham […] (Publications of the English Dialect Society; 74), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1896, →OCLC.
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[4]

Anagrams

• Town, town, wo'n't, won't, wont

Middle English

Pronoun

nowt

1. Alternative form of nought

Adverb

nowt

1. Alternative form of nought

Adjective

nowt

1. Alternative form of nought

Noun

nowt

1. Alternative form of nought

Scots

Etymology

From Old English nāwiht.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nʌut/

Pronoun

nowt

1. (Southern Scots) naught, nothing

   Synonyms: nihin, nithin, nuhin, noot, nowts

   Antonym: owt