ἰῶτα

Forms

ῐῶτᾰ (iôta) n (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

It is a borrowing from Semitic: Beekes and Frisk compare the Hebrew name of the letter, and Wiktionary takes it as borrowed from Phoenician 𐤉𐤃 (yd, “the letter y”).^[2][3][1] Rosół counts it among the early Semitic loans that are letter names: the Semitic name of the letter, originally a noun meaning “hand”, is found in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic.^[4] The Greek name ends in -τα instead of the expected -δα by analogy with βῆτα (bêta), ζῆτα (zêta), ἦτα (êta) and θῆτα (thêta), and its final -α is the same as in the other letter names.^[4]

Zonaras derived the name from ἰός (iós), “venom”, because venom travels straight, as the letter is written, or from the homonym meaning “arrow”; this is an ancient guess.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rosół cites the tragedian Achaeus and the comic poet Callias, both of the 5th century BC, as the first writers who use the name of the letter iota.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Plato names the letter in the Cratylus, and Aeneas Tacticus and the grammarians use the name; it is indeclinable.^[7][2][8] A 3rd-century BC inscription uses it for a line or stroke on a sundial.^[7] As the smallest letter, it stood for anything very small: in Matthew 5:18 not one iota or one stroke of the Law will pass away, where it renders the Aramaic letter yod, the smallest of the Hebrew alphabet.^[7][9][10] Hesychius glosses it as the letter.^[11] The grammarians formed ἰωτακισμός (iōtakismós) for the repetition of the iota, after words such as σολοικισμός (soloikismós).^[2][3]

Latin borrowed the name as Latin iota.^[12] It lives on as Modern Greek γιώτα (gióta), with the popular change of /i/ to /j/ before a vowel, and in the phrase “not one iota changed”.^[13] English iota “a very small amount” (1630s) follows the verse in Matthew, and the earlier jot (1520s) comes from the same Greek word through Latin.^[14]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Achaeus and Callias use the name of the letter.^[4][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato names the letter in the Cratylus.^[7][2][6]
• 4th century BC – Aeneas Tacticus uses it.^[7][6]
• 3rd century BC – An Alexandrian inscription uses it for a line on a sundial.^[7]
• 1st century AD – In Matthew 5:18 not one iota of the Law will pass away, the image of the smallest detail.^[7][9][8]
• 1520s – English borrows it, through Latin, as jot.^[14]
• 1630s – English iota is used of a very small amount.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The name of the letter ι, iota.^[7][15]
2. A line or stroke on a sundial.^[7]
3. (proverbial) The smallest thing, a jot.^[7][15][9]

Word family

• ἰωτακισμός (iōtakismós)

Related words

• Latin iota
• English iota
• English jot

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
5. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
6. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
10. ^ Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
11. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
12. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
13. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press