Our investigation was inspired by a query about the term nugation. No, there is no connection between nugation and the nutty-sugar paste nougat concoction; nugation is the now-obsolete term—born in the Latin nugae meaning "trifles; jokes"—that once named "the act or an instance of trifling." (来源：英语学习门户网站EnglishCN.com)

But the adjectival nugatory is no trifling matter. Since the earliest days of the 17th century, nugatory has been used to describe something "of little or no consequence; trifling; inconsequential" or something "inoperative" or "having no force."

(来源：英语学习门户网站EnglishCN.com)

That's not to say our language was lax until then when it came to describing things without worth or significance. As long as we've had a language, English speakers have counted on the words idle, empty, and hollow. While idle suggests "being incapable of worthwhile use or effect" (idle speculation, for example), empty and hollow suggest "a deceiving lack of genuineness, soundness, or real substance."

Finally, there's our favorite, otiose. A late 18th century coinage, otiose has an ancestor in the Latin word for leisure and is applied to something "producing no useful result; lacking use or effect;" or "idle."