jot [LME] Greek iōta (ι), the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, gave us jot as a word for a very small amount—‘i’ and ‘j’ being interchangeable forms in medieval writing. To stress that someone cannot have any part of something, we might use the phrase not one jot or not one iota, which reflects the warning given by Jesus in St Matthew’s Gospel that ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law’ (a tittle here is a small stroke or accent). To jot something down appeared in the early 18th century and seems to have developed from the idea of a short sharp action as in writing a jot.