Brewer's: Naughty Figs

(Jeremiah xxiv. 2). Worthless, vile (Anglo-Saxon náht, i.e. n negative, aht aught). We still say a “naughty boy,” a “naughty girl,” and a “naughty child.”

“One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe. ... The other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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