wot
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
- (Australia) enPR: wŏt, IPA: /wɔt/, SAMPA: /wOt/
- (UK) enPR: wŏt, IPA: /wɒt/, SAMPA: /wQt/
- (US) enPR: wät, IPA: /wɑt/, SAMPA: /wAt/
- Rhymes: -ɒt
- Homophones: watt, what (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
[edit] Etymology 1
An extension of the present-tense form of wit (verb) to apply to all forms.
[edit] Verb
wot (third-person singular simple present wots, present participle wotting, simple past and past participle wotted)
- (archaic) To know.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XII:
- He that walketh in the darke, wotteth not whither he goeth.
- 1855, John Godfrey Saxe, Poems, Ticknor & Fields 1855, p. 121:
- She little wots, poor Lady Anne! Her wedded lord is dead.
- 1866, Algernon Charles Swinburne, "The Garden of Proserpine" in Poems and Ballads, 1st Series, London: J. C. Hotten, 1866:
- They wot not who make thither [...].
- 1889, William Morris, The Roots of the Mountains, Inkling Books 2003, p. 241:
- Then he cast his eyes on the road that entered the Market-stead from the north, and he saw thereon many men gathered; and he wotted not what they were [...].
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XII:
[edit] Etymology 2
From wit, in return from Old English verb witan.
[edit] Verb
wot
- First-person singular simple present form of wit.
- Third-person singular simple present indicative form of wit.
[edit] Etymology 3
Representing pronunciation.
[edit] Interjection
wot
- what (humorous misspelling intended to mimic certain working class accents)
- 1859, Then, wot with undertakers, and wot with parish clerks, and wot with sextons, and wot with private watchmen (all awaricious and all in it), a man wouldn't get much by it, even if it was so. — Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin 2003, p. 319)
