Other forms: aughts
Aught means anything at all, in old use. For aught I know, if aught should happen, aught but this.
It survives in for aught I know, a set phrase meaning as far as I know. It is the positive counterpart of naught, which is nothing — and naught is simply no plus aught. The word is Old English and means literally ever a thing. Note the spelling against ought, which sounds identical.
1nounaughtAnything at all.
“If aught should happen to me, look after my children.”
aught is a quantity word.
Old English awiht is a, ever, plus wiht, a thing. Naught is no plus aught, and nothing is built the same way.
Old English
āht
Middle English
aught
English, today
aught
Built from
From Middle English aught, ought, from Old English āht, āwiht, from ā (“always", "ever”) + wiht (“thing", "creature”). More at wight.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA