In Which Tittles are Revisited, Jots are Explored, Scripture is Quoted, and Hosannas Ring Across the Land
As an informal companion piece to a previous essay regarding the tittle, let us spend a brief moment upon the jot. The word jot, as in "jot or tittle," comes from an anglicization of the Greek letter iota, which corresponds to the Hebrew letter yodh, which is itself the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Thus we have both jot and iota having the connotations of insignificantly small items, or the smallest of some set of items. The phrase "jot or tittle" is from a translation of the new testament, "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
Addendum: a tittle can also refer to the dots on a die, and before the word dot as a verb became commonplace, tittle meant roughly the same thing for some time. Thus, until recently, people were more likely to tittle their iotas instead of dotting their i's.
