Words have changes in their fortunes over time just as people and institutions do. The word naughty at one time might have been high on one's list as an all-purpose word similar to bad or nice. During the 16th century one could use naughty to mean “unhealthy, unpleasant, bad (with respect to weather), vicious (of an animal), inferior, or bad in quality” (one could say “very naughtie figes” or “naughty corrupt water”). All of these senses have disappeared, however, and naughty is now used mainly in contexts involving mischief or indecency. This recalls its early days in Middle English (with the form noughti), when the word was restricted to the senses “evil, hostile, ineffectual, and needy.” Middle English noughti, first recorded in works written in the last quarter of the 14th century, was derived from nought, which as a noun had senses such as “evil,” as a pronoun meant “nothing,” and as an adjective could mean such things as “immoral, weak, useless.” Noughtwas descended from Old English n³wiht, with similar senses, a compound made up of n³, “no,” and wiht, “thing, being.” Thus naughty, in a sense, has risen from nothing, but its fortunes have been better than they are at present.
正像人们和制度那样，词随着时间改变了意思。单词 naughty曾一度作为类似于 bad或 nice这种通用词语而列于某人的词汇表中。在16世纪，人们可以用 naughty来指“不健康的，不舒服的，坏的（和天气相关的），邪恶的（动物），较劣的，或质量坏的”（人们可以说“非常坏的人” 或“不健康的被污染的水”）。然而所有的这些词义都消失了，现在 naughty主要用于关系到顽皮或不妥的上下文中。这使人回想起它在中世纪英语的早些时候形式为 naughti，当这个词被限定为用作“邪恶的，敌意的，无用的，和贫穷的”意思。中世纪英语的 noughti最先记录于写于14世纪后二十五年的著作中，是由 nought派生而来的，作为名词用有“邪恶”的意思，作为代词用是“没有”的意思，和作为形容词为“不道德的，虚弱的，无用的”。 Nought是从古英语 nawiht中传下来的，并且有相似的意思，由 na“没有”和 wiht“事情，事物”组成的合成词。这样 naughty从某种意义上来说，从没有中生出，但是其意思却比现在的这些意思好得多
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