jot

See also: Jot and jót

English

Etymology

From Latin iōta, from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta). Doublet of iota.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dʒɒt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dʒɑt/
• Rhymes: -ɒt

Noun

jot (plural jots)

1. Iota; the smallest letter or stroke of any writing.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Matthew 5:18, column 1:

     For verily I ſay vnto you, Till heauen and earth paſſe, one iote or one tittle, ſhall in no wiſe paſſe from the law, till all be fulfilled.

   • 1904, Bliss Carman, “Christmas Eve at St. Kavin’s” in Pipes of Pan: Songs from a Northern Garden, Boston: L.C. Page, p. 107,^[1]

     Of old, men said, “Sin not;

     By every line and jot

     Ye shall abide; man’s heart is false and vile.”

2. A small amount, bit; the smallest amount.

   He didn't care a jot for his work.

   • c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Sir, the people / Must have their voices; neither will they bate / One jot of ceremony.

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, 3rd edition, p. 159,^[2]

     After this I spent a great deal of Time and Pains to make me an Umbrella; I was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind to make one; I had seen them made in the Brasils, where they are very useful in the great Heats which are there: And I felt the Heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the Equinox […]

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Pride and Prejudice, volume I, London: […] T[homas] Egerton […], OCLC 38659585:

     “If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside,” cried Bingley, “it would not make them one jot less agreeable.”

   • 1901–1903, [George] Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, OCLC 899619, Act I, page 23:

     For mark you, Tavy, the artist’s work is to show us ourselves as we really are. Our minds are nothing but this knowledge of ourselves; and he who adds a jot to such knowledge creates new mind as surely as any woman creates new men.

   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Chapter 8,^[3]

     “What does that matter? Arsenic would put poor Emily out of the way just as well as strychnine. If I’m convinced he did it, it doesn’t matter a jot to me how he did it.”

3. (obsolete) A moment, an instant.
   • 1595, Edmund Spenser, Amoretti in Kenneth J. Larson (ed.), Amoretti and Epithalamion: A Critical Edition, Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1997, Sonnet LVII, p. 91,^[4]

     So weake my powres, so sore my wounds appeare,

     that wonder is how I should liue a iot,

     seeing my hart through launched euery where

     with thousand arrowes, which your eies haue shot:

   • c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     No, faith, I'll not stay a jot longer.

   • 1728, Lewis Theobald, Double Falshood: or, the Distrest Lovers, London: J. Watts, Act I, Scene 1, p. 12,^[5]

     Making my Death familiar to my Tongue

     Digs not my Grave one Jot before the Date.

4. A brief and hurriedly written note.
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 53:

     "I say, it is no uneven jot, to pass from the more faint and obscure examples of Spermatical life to the more considerable effects of general Motion in Minerals, Metalls, and sundry Meteors ..."

   • 1920, Robert Nichols, “Sonnets to Aurelia, IV” in Aurelia and Other Poems, London: Chatto & Windus, p. 29,^[6]

     “Lover,” you say; “how beautiful that is,

     That little word!” […]

     Yes, it is beautiful. I have marked it long,

     Long in my dusty head its jot secreted,

     Yet my heart never knew this word a song

     Till in the night softly by you repeated.

Synonyms

• (small amount): see also Thesaurus:modicum.

Derived terms

• every jot and tittle
• not a jot or tittle

Translations

iota

• Bulgarian: йота (bg) f (jota)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 少量的

• Finnish: hitunen (fi), hiven (fi)
• Georgian: იოტა (ioṭa)
• Greek: γιώτα (el) (gióta)

  Ancient: ἰῶτα n (iôta)

• Hebrew: קוֹצוֹ שֶׁל יוֹד‎ (he) m (qotzó shel yod)

• Icelandic: punktur (is) m, depill (is) m, angarögn f
• Ido: iota (io)
• Irish: ruainne m
• Italian: punto (it) m
• Japanese: わずか (ja) (wazuka)
• Polish: jota (pl) f
• Russian: йо́та (ru) f (jóta)
• Spanish: jota (es) f; pizca (es) f
• Vietnamese: chút (vi), tí tẹo (vi), tí teo (vi)

See also

• tittle

Verb

jot (third-person singular simple present jots, present participle jotting, simple past and past participle jotted)

1. (usually with "down") To write quickly.

   Tell me your order, so I can jot it down.

Derived terms

• jot down

Translations

to write quickly

• Bulgarian: нахвърлям (bg) (nahvǎrljam), надрасквам (bg) (nadraskvam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 速记 (zh)

• Finnish: sutaista
• Georgian: ჩაწერა (čac̣era)
• German: schnell hinschreiben

• Icelandic: skrifa hjá sér, punkta, punkta niður, hripa, hripa niður, hripa hjá sér
• Polish: skrobnąć pf
• Russian: черкну́ть (ru) pf (čerknútʹ), наброса́ть (ru) pf (nabrosátʹ)
• Thai: จด (th) (jòt)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} biffer (fr), ^{(please verify)} noter au brouillon

Anagrams

• OJT, OTJ

---

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• got (northern Moselle Franconian)
• gut (southern Moselle Franconian)

Etymology

From Old High German guod, northern variant of guot, from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /joːt/

Adjective

jot (masculine jode, feminine jot, comparative besser, superlative et beste)

1. (Ripuarian) good

---

Ingrian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *jo. Cognate to Finnish jotta.

Conjunction

jot

1. so that, in order that

---

Luxembourgish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /joːt/, /ʒoːt/

Verb

jot

1. inflection of joen:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

---

Rayón Zoque

Noun

jot

1. bird

Derived terms

• jotꞌune

See also

• jotjot

References

• Harrison, Roy; B. de Harrison, Margaret; López Juárez, Francisco; Ordoñes, Cosme (1984) Vocabulario zoque de Rayón (Serie de diccionarios y vocabularios indígenas Mariano Silva y Aceves; 28)‎^[7] (in Spanish), México, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 10