wot

English

Pronunciation

• (Australia) enPR: wŏt, IPA^(key): /wɔt/
• (UK) enPR: wŏt, IPA^(key): /wɒt/
• (US) enPR: wät, IPA^(key): /wɑt/
• Rhymes: -ɒt
• Homophones: watt, what (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

An extension of the present-tense form of wit (verb) to apply to all forms.

Verb

wot (third-person singular simple present wots, present participle wotting, simple past and past participle wotted)

1. (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 [...].

Etymology 2

From wit, in return from Old English verb witan.

Verb

wot

1. first-person singular present indicative of wit
2. third-person singular simple present indicative form of wit

Etymology 3

Representing pronunciation.

Interjection

wot

1. 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)

   Wot, no bananas? (popular slogan during wartime rationing)

Anagrams

• OTW, owt, tow, two, Two, WTO