Null
/nʌl/noun
Having no value, effect, or legal force; zero or empty.
Did you know?In legal Latin, nullus meant “not any,” and that same root helped shape modern words for negation and absence across European languages.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ne
“negative particle: not”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ol-no-
“none, not one”
Latin
Latin
nullus
“not any; no one; none”
Old French
Old French
nul
“no one; none”
Middle English
English
null
“of no legal force; invalid”
Modern English
English
null
“having no value, effect, or quantity”