different between jot vs mote

English

Etymology

From Latin i?ta, from Ancient Greek ???? (iôta). Doublet of iota.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

jot (plural jots)

1. Iota; the smallest letter or stroke of any writing.
   • 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.

   • 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 […]

   • 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:

   • 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

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

Anagrams

• OJT, OTJ

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• jott (westernmost Ripuarian)
• got (northern Moselle Franconian)
• gut (southern Moselle Franconian)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jo?t/

Adjective

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

1. (most of Ripuarian) good

Ingrian

Etymology

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

Conjunction

jot

1. so that, in order that

Luxembourgish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jo?t/, /?o?t/

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

• jot?une

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

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /mo?t/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m??t/
• Rhymes: -??t
• Homophone: moat

Etymology 1

From Middle English mot, from Old English mot (“grain of sand; mote; atom”), but of uncertain ultimate origin. Sometimes linked to Spanish mota (“speck”) and English mud..

Compare West Frisian mot (“peat dust”), Dutch mot (“dust from turf; sawdust; grit”), Norwegian mutt (“speck; mote; splinter; chip”).

Noun

mote (plural motes)

1. A small particle; a speck.

   • Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

   • a. 1729, Edward Taylor, "Meditation. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare a place for you":

     What shall a Mote up to a Monarch rise?

     An Emmet match an Emperor in might?

Translations

See also

• floater

Etymology 2

From Middle English moten, from Old English m?tan (“to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compelled to, may, must”), from Proto-Germanic *m?tan? (“to be able to, have to, be delegated”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to acquire, possess, be in charge of”). Cognate with Dutch moeten (“to have to, must”), German müssen (“to have to, must”), Danish måtte (“might, may”), Ancient Greek ???? (méd?, “to prevail, dominate, rule over”). Related to empty.

Verb

mote (third-person singular simple present mote, no present participle, simple past and past participle must)

1. (archaic) May or might. [from 9th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     he […] kept aloofe for dread to be descryde, / Untill fit time and place he mote espy, / Where he mote worke him scath and villeny.

2. (obsolete) Must. [9th-17th c.]
3. (archaic) Forming subjunctive expressions of wish: may. [from 9th c.]
   • 1980, Erica Jong, Fanny:

     ‘I shall not take Vengeance into my own Hands. The Goddess will do what She will.’ ‘So mote it be,’ said the Grandmaster.

Usage notes

• Generally takes an infinitive without to.

Etymology 3

See moot (“a meeting”).

Noun

mote (plural motes)

1. (obsolete) A meeting for discussion.

   a wardmote in the city of London

2. (obsolete) A body of persons who meet for discussion, especially about the management of affairs.

   a folk mote

3. (obsolete) A place of meeting for discussion.

Derived terms

• folk-mote
• mote bell
• shire-mote

Etymology 4

From remote, with allusion to the other sense of mote (“a speck of dust”).

Noun

mote (plural motes)

1. A tiny computer for remote sensing; a component element of smartdust.

References

Anagrams

• -tome, Tome, tome

Inari Sami

Etymology

From Proto-Samic *mo??.

Noun

mote

1. mud

Inflection

Further reading

• Koponen, Eino; Ruppel, Klaas; Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002-2008) Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages?^[1], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Italian

Noun

mote f pl

1. plural of mota

Anagrams

• temo

Japanese

Romanization

mote

1. R?maji transcription of ??

Latin

Participle

m?te

1. vocative masculine singular of m?tus

Middle English

Verb

mote

1. inflection of moten (“to have to”):
   1. present subjunctive singular
   2. present indicative/subjunctive plural

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French mode

Noun

mote m (definite singular moten, indefinite plural moter, definite plural motene)

1. fashion

Derived terms

• motebevisst
• motehus
• moteshow
• moteverden

References

• “mote” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From French mode

Noun

mote m (definite singular moten, indefinite plural motar, definite plural motane)

1. fashion

Derived terms

• motebevisst
• motehus
• moteshow
• motemedveten, motemedviten

References

• “mote” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Provençal or French mot (“word”); see also Italian motto (“word”).

Noun

mote m (plural motes)

1. motto

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mote/, [?mo.t?e]

Etymology 1

From French mot (“word, saying”) or Occitan mot.

Noun

mote m (plural motes)

1. nickname
2. motto (heraldry)

Related terms

• motejar

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Quechua mut'i.

Noun

mote m (plural motes)

1. (South America) hulled cereal, especially pearl barley and hominy

Derived terms

• mote de maíz
• mote de trigo

Further reading

• “mote” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Volapük

Noun

mote

1. dative singular of mot