Etymograph

English

yot

Yot comes from Greek γιοτ ‘Yot, the uncommon Greek letter ϳ’, and goes back to Proto-Semitic *yad- ‘hand’.

  1. Proto-Semiticc. 4000–3000 BCE*yad-1‘hand’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἰῶτα1‘iota, the name for the ninth letter Ι (I), ι (i) of the Ancient Greek alphabet’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiota1
  4. Germanc. 1650–presentJot2
  5. Greek1453–presentγιοτ2giot‘Yot, the uncommon Greek letter ϳ’
  6. Englishtodayyot2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, German Jot
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English yot

Lineage

  1. Proto-Semiticc. 4000–3000 BCE*yad-Wiktionary, German Jot‘hand’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἰῶταWiktionary, German Jot‘iota, the name for the ninth letter Ι (I), ι (i) of the Ancient Greek alphabet’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEiotaWiktionary, German Jot
  4. Germanc. 1650–presentJotWiktionary, English yot
  5. Greek1453–presentγιοτWiktionary, English yotgiot‘Yot, the uncommon Greek letter ϳ’
  6. EnglishtodayyotWiktionary, English yot

Linked words

through Proto-Semitic *yad- ‘hand’

yad, 2 more

through Ancient Greek ἰῶτα ‘iota, the name for the ninth letter Ι (I), ι…’

iota, 1 more

through Latin iota

jot

Another origin of yot

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰewd-‘to pour’root named by Wiktionary
  2. English1500–presentyote‘to melt, weld’uncertain
  3. Englishtodayyot

Today it means

noun The letter Ϳϳ, an uncommon variant of Jj used in Greek linguistics.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “yot”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for German Jot. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Semitic *yad- / yot

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