didn't ought

didn't ought
didn't ought
may be the result of a collision of the strange behaviour patterns of two modal verbs, do and ought, but its origins are in dialect and it features in literature only as a (sometimes stereotypical) representation of rustic or poorly educated speech:

• And I hope none here will say I did anything I didn't ought. For I have only done my duty —Michael Innes, 1942

• You didn't ought to have let that fire out —William Golding, 1954.


Modern English usage. 2014.

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