wot
See also: wót
Contents
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (General Australian) enPR: wŏt, IPA(key): /wɔt/
- (UK) enPR: wŏt, IPA(key): /wɒt/
- (US) enPR: wät, IPA(key): /wɑt/
- Rhymes: -ɒt
- Homophones: watt, what (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Etymology 1Edit
An extension of the present-tense form of wit (verb) to apply to all forms.
VerbEdit
wot (third-person singular simple present wots, present participle wotting, simple past and past participle wotted)
- (archaic) To know.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XII:
- He that walketh in the darke, wotteth not whither he goeth.
- 1855, John Godfrey Saxe, Poems, Ticknor & Fields 1855, p. 121:
- She little wots, poor Lady Anne! Her wedded lord is dead.
- 1866, Algernon Charles Swinburne, "The Garden of Proserpine" in Poems and Ballads, 1st Series, London: J. C. Hotten, 1866:
- They wot not who make thither […]
- 1889, William Morris, The Roots of the Mountains, Inkling Books 2003, p. 241:
- Then he cast his eyes on the road that entered the Market-stead from the north, and he saw thereon many men gathered; and he wotted not what they were […]
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XII:
Etymology 2Edit
From wit, in return from Old English witan.
VerbEdit
wot
- first-person singular present indicative of wit
- Third-person singular simple present indicative form of wit
Etymology 3Edit
Representing pronunciation.
InterjectionEdit
wot
- Eye dialect spelling of what.
- 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin 2003, p. 319)
- Then, wot with undertakers, and wot with parish clerks, and wot with sextons, and wot with private watchmen (all awaricious and all in it), a man wouldn't get much by it, even if it was so.
- Wot, no bananas? (popular slogan during wartime rationing)
- 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin 2003, p. 319)
Etymology 4Edit
AdverbEdit
wot (not comparable)
- (Singlish) Alternative form of wat (used to contradict an assumption)