different between jot vs scintilla

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

Etymology

Existing in English since the 17th century; borrowed from Latin scintilla (“spark”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /s?n?t?l?/
• Rhymes: -?l?

Noun

scintilla (plural scintillae or scintillas)

1. A small spark or flash.
   • 1890, Philosophical Magazine, page 364,

     If the action of the electrodynamic waves is so violent that, even without artificial electrification of the secondary conductor, scintillæ occur in its spark-gap, the aluminium leaves remain almost without change.

2. (figuratively) A small or trace amount.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:modicum

   • 1876 February, John Tyndall, The Controversy on Acoustical Research, Popular Science Monthly,

     And, if I except the sagacious remark of General Duane which has been so curtly brushed aside, not a scintilla of light has been cast upon these causes by any researches ever published by the Lighthouse Board of Washington.

   • 1878 April, John Tyndall, Illustrations of the Logic of Science IV, Popular Science Monthly,

     Now, it may be we have no scintilla of proof to the contrary, but reason is unnecessary in reference to that belief which is of all the most settled, which nobody doubts or can doubt, and which he who should deny would stultify himself in so doing.

   • 1990, William J. Brennan, Jr., Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health: Dissent Brennan, United States Supreme Court,

     Current medical practice recommends use of heroic measures if there is a scintilla of a chance that the patient will recover, on the assumption that the measures will be discontinued should the patient improve.

Related terms

• scintilla juris
• scintillate
• scintillation
• scintillator
• shine
• stencil
• tinsel

Translations

Further reading

• “scintilla”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “scintilla”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

References

Anagrams

• Scillitan

French

Verb

scintilla

1. third-person singular past historic of scintiller

Italian

Etymology

From Latin scintilla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?in?til.la/

Noun

scintilla f (plural scintille)

1. spark

Verb

scintilla

1. third-person singular present of scintillare
2. second-person singular imperative of scintillare

Further reading

• scintilla in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Etymology

Most likely from Proto-Indo-European *ski-nto-, from *skey-, *ski- (“to gleam, shine”), which is the source of English shine.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /skin?til.la/, [s?k?n??t??l??ä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?in?til.la/, [?in??t?il??]

Noun

scintilla f (genitive scintillae); first declension

1. spark
   • Quintus Curtius Rufus, Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt; Book VI, Chapter III

     Parva saepe scintilla contempta magnum excitavit incendium.

     A small spark neglected has often roused to a great inferno.

2. glimmer

Declension

First-declension noun.

Derived terms

• scintill?

Descendants

• ? Vulgar Latin: *scintilia
  • ? Albanian: shkëndijë
  • Aromanian: scãntealji
  • Romanian: scânteie
• ? Vulgar Latin: *stincilla
  • Old French: estancele
    • Middle French: estincelle
      • ? English: tinsel
      • French: étincelle
• ? English: scintilla
• ? Italian: scintilla
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: centella
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: centella
• Old Portuguese: centella
  • Portuguese: centelha
• Old Spanish:
  • Spanish: centella
• Sardinian: schinchidha, scincidha
• Venetian: s-ciantixo, sciantizha, sinti?a

References

• scintilla in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• scintilla in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• scintilla in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)