• (RP) IPA: /d͡ʒɒt/
• (America) IPA: /d͡ʒɑt/

The noun is borrowed from Latin iōta, from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα, from Phoenician 𐤉‬.

The verb is probably borrowed from Scots jot, from English jot: see above.

jot (plural jots)

1. The smallest letter or stroke of any writing; an iota.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i], signature [H4], verso ↗:

     This bond doth giue thee here no iote of blood, / The vvords expreſly are a pound of fleſh: / Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of fleſh, / But in the cutting of it, if thou doſt ſhed / One drop of Chriſtian blood, thy lands and goods / Are by the lavves of Venice, confiſcate / Vnto the State of Venice.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 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.

2. (by extension, chiefly in the negative) A small, or the smallest, amount of a thing; a bit, a whit.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:modicum

   He didn’t care a jot for his work.

   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii], page 11 ↗, column 2:

     Sir, the People muſt haue their Voiyes, / Neyther vvill they bate / One iot of Ceremonie.

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC ↗, page 159 ↗:

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

   • 1768, Horace Walpole, “The Murder of His Brother Clarence”, in Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC ↗, page 31 ↗:

     [T]hough Richard [III] vvas purſued and killed as a uſurper, the Solomon that ſucceeded him [Henry VII of England], vvas not a jot leſs a tyrant.

   • 1813 January 26, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC ↗, page 79 ↗:

     "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 ↗, 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 October, Agatha Christie, “Fresh Suspicions”, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles […], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, published March 1927, pages 182–183 ↗:

     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.

   1. (obsolete) An instant, a moment.
      • 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LVII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC ↗, signature [D6], recto ↗:

        So vveake my povvres, ſo ſore my vvounds appeare, / that vvonder is hovv I ſhould liue a iot, / ſeeing my hart through launched euery vvhere / vvith thouſand arrovves, vvhich your eies haue ſhot: […]

      • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii], page 266 ↗, column 1:

        No faith, Ile not ſtay a iot longer: […]

      • 1727 December 24 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Lew[is] Theobald, W[illiam] Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], Double Falshood; or, The Distrest Lovers. […], London: […] J. Watts, […], published 1728, →OCLC ↗, Act I, scene i, page 1 ↗:

        Making my Death familiar to my Tongue / Digs not my Grave one Jot before the Date.

3. A brief and hurriedly written note.

• Italian: punto
• Russian: йо́та
• Spanish: jota; pizca

jot (jots, present participle jotting; simple past and past participle jotted)

1. (transitive) Chiefly followed by down: to write (something) quickly; to make a brief note of (something).

   Coordinate term: scribble

   Tell me your order so I can jot it down.

   • 1827 February 12 (date written), Walter Scott, “[Entry dated 12 February 1827]”, in David Douglas, editor, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott […], volume I, Edinburgh: David Douglas, published 1890, →OCLC ↗, page 357 ↗:

     He mentions as certain the falsehood of a number of the assertions concerning his usage, the unhealthy state of the island, and so forth. I have jotted down his evidence elsewhere.

• French: noter au brouillon
• German: schnell hinschreiben, kurz notieren
• Portuguese: rabiscar
• Russian: черка́ть

The verb is possibly onomatopoeic, suggesting a jerking motion. The noun is derived from the verb.

jot (jots, present participle jotting; simple past and past participle jotted)

1. (transitive, obsolete, except, Britain, dialectal) To jerk or jolt (something); to jog.

   Synonyms: bump

   • 1556, John Heywood, chapter 24, in The Spider and the Flie. […], London: […] Tho[mas] Powell, →OCLC ↗; republished as A[dolphus] W[illiam] Ward, editor, The Spider and the Flie. […] (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 6), Manchester: […] [Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1894, →OCLC ↗, page 110 ↗:

     Nowe is iuſte iuſtice, ſo iotted out of iointe, / That ye here vniuſtely, ſtande at deniall, / To do me iuſtice, and wolde by power ryall: / Directe mine acquitall or condemnacion, / Euen as wyll in both: weith your acceptacion.

jot (plural jots)

1. (obsolete, rare) A jerk, a jolt.

   Synonyms: bump

   • 1640 (date written), H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΟΖΩΙΑ [Psychozōia], or A Christiano-platonicall Display of Life, […]”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, published 1642, →OCLC ↗, book 2, stanza 47, page 26 ↗:

     [F]requent jot / Of his hard ſetting jade did ſo confound / The vvords that he by papyr-ſtealth had got, / That their loſt ſenſe the youngſter could not ſound, / Though he vvith mimical attention did abound.

     Jade here refers to “a horse too old to be put to work”.

   • 1653, Henry More, chapter XII, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC ↗, book I, page 61 ↗:

     […] I ſay it is no uneven jot, to paſſe from the more faint and obſcure examples of Spermaticall life, to the more conſiderable effects of generall Motion in Mineralls, Metalls & ſundry Meteors, […]