wot

See also: wót

English

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) enPR: wŏt, IPA^(key): /wɔt/
• (UK) enPR: wŏt, IPA^(key): /wɒt/
• (General American) enPR: wät, IPA^(key): /wɑt/
• Rhymes: -ɒt
• Homophones: watt; what (UK, wine–whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English woten, from Old English weotan. An extension of the present-tense form of wit (verb) to apply to all forms.

Verb

wot (third-person singular simple present wots, present participle wotting, simple past and past participle wotted)

1. (archaic) To know (in the sense of knowing a fact).
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John:

     He that walketh in the darke, wotteth not whither he goeth.

   • 1878, Thomas Tusser, “74. A Digression.”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J[ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 166:

     Take heed to false harlots, and more, ye wot what. / If noise ye heare, / Looke all be cleare: / Least drabs doe noie thee, / And theeues destroie thee.

   • 1637, Thomas Heywood, The Royall King, and the Loyall Subject. […], London: […] Nich[olas] and John Okes, for James Becket, […], →OCLC, Act III, signature E4, verso:

     VVots thou vvho's returnd, / The unthrift Bonvile, ragged as a ſcarre-crovv / The VVarres have gnavv'd his garments to the skinne: […]

   • 1855, John Godfrey Saxe, Poems, Ticknor & Fields, published 1855, page 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, “Otter and His Folk Come into Mid-mark”, in A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark […], London: Reeves and Turner […], →OCLC, page 126:

     Ever he gazed earnestly on the main battle of the Romans, and what they were doing, and presently it became clear to him that they would outgo him and come to the ford, and then he wotted well that they would set on him just when their light-armed were on his flank and his rearward, and then it would go hard but they would break their array and all would be lost: […]

   • 1890, William Morris, “Men Meet in the Market of Silver-stead”, in The Roots of the Mountains […], London: Reeves and Turner […], →OCLC, page 353:

     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; for though there were weapons amongst them, yet were they not all weaponed, as far as he could see.

   • 1988, Terry Pratchett, Mort, Corgi, published 1988, page 91:

     They sped under the moonlight as silent as a shadow, visible only to cats and to people who dabbled in things men were not meant to wot of.

Etymology 2

From wit, in return from Old English witan.

Verb

wot

1. first-person singular present indicative of wit
2. third-person singular simple present indicative of wit

Etymology 3

Representing pronunciation.

Interjection

wot

1. Eye dialect spelling of what.

   Wot, no bananas? ― (popular slogan during wartime rationing)

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

     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.

Pronoun

wot

1. Eye dialect spelling of what.
   • 1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:

     Fer, as the poit sez, me 'eart 'as got / The pip wiv yearnin' fer - I dunno wot.

Coordinate terms

• woat
• wut

 

Etymology 4

Adverb

wot (not comparable)

1. (Singlish) Alternative form of what (used to contradict an assumption)

Anagrams

• OTW, TOW, Tow, WTO, owt, tow, two

Australian Kriol

Etymology

From English what.

Pronoun

wot

1. (interrogative) what

   Synonyms: wani, wanim

Lower Sorbian

Preposition

wot (with genitive)

1. Superseded spelling of wót.

Middle English

Verb

wot

1. first/third-person singular present indicative of witen

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English ward.

Noun

wot

1. ward