jot

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English jote,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin iōta,^[4][5][6][3] with the initial read as j,^[4][7] from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta), the name of the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet.^[4][5][6][8] That name is of Semitic origin,^[9][10][5] akin to the name of the Hebrew letter yod.^[9][11][6] The metre shows that the word was already of one syllable in the 16th century.^[4][6] The verb is apparently formed from the noun, either from the idea of a brief note^[5] or, as the OED suggests, from an original sense "to make the smallest mark with a pen or pencil", comparing dot.^[4] The verb was apparently Scots at first.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something of no value: before 1500, in a poem in which boasting ys worth a Ioote.^[2][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates its sense "the least bit" to 1500.^[9] The OED's first quotation is Tyndale's New Testament of 1526, and Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories too calls that the word's first appearance.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The word's currency comes from Matthew 5:18.^[5][8] In 1382 Wycliffe's translation there used the English letter i, glossed as the least letter.^[8] Tyndale in 1526 instead anglicized the Latin name of the letter: "One iott or one tytle of the law shall not scape".^[8] The Authorized Version has "one jot or one tittle", and the word has usually gone with tittle.^[9][5][8] The original Aramaic must have referred to the Hebrew yod, the smallest letter of that alphabet, and the transfer was easy because iota was also the smallest letter in Greek.^[8] By the 17th century iota itself was used in English in the same sense, recorded from 1636.^[8][6][5] From the letter the word widened to the very least part or amount, a whit,^[4][12] now usually in negative contexts.^[12][10] Johnson (1755) defines it as "a point; a tittle; the least quantity assignable", quoting Spenser.^[13] The verb appeared in the 18th century, in the work of Allan Ramsay, and was made familiar in English by Scott and the writers in Blackwood.^[4][6] It is usually followed by down.^[4][10][9]

Timeline

• before 1500 – Ioote, something of no value.^[2][6]
• 1526 – iott, the least letter or written part; the very least part or amount, in Tyndale's Matthew 5:18.^[4][6][8]
• 1721 – verb, to write down briefly, in Allan Ramsay's Poems.^[6][5][9] The OED's first quotation, also from Ramsay, is of 1735.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The least bit; the smallest amount, usually with a negative: Her opinion hasn't changed one jot.^[9][10][4]
2. The smallest letter or written mark, as in the Bible or in allusion to it; iota: jot or tittle.^[9][4]

Verb

1. To write something quickly or briefly, usually with down: He jotted down the address on a receipt.^[10][9][4]

Word family

• jotter
• jotting

Related words

• iota
• yod

Usage notes

The OED enters separately a verb of the same spelling meaning to jog or jolt, recorded from 1530 and apparently imitative,^[4][11] with a noun for a jolt, of 1647.^[4] The Shorter Oxford calls that verb obsolete except in dialect,^[12] and the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Lincolnshire, East Anglia and Somerset.^[14] The same dictionary has a noun of Scotland and Yorkshire for a small job or light domestic work, and in East Anglia a noun for part of a pig's insides.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)