Iota

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(Piano music) Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

The Phoenician word for 'hand' (wrist to fingers) was ‘yodh’ and they wrote it by drawing a small vertical line . Ancient Greeks took that and incorporated it in the Alphabet as the 9th and smallest letter called Ιωτα (yiota) and pronounced like the I in ‘fit’. When the bible came round, the phrase ‘not one iota’ and similarly the word 'Jot' to describe an extremely small amount of something, became very popular . The phrase ‘jotting down‘ to indicate you take quick notes or sketching came much later in the 1700s in a dictionary written by Scottish Philologist John Jamieson, and for quite some time, the phrase was linked exclusive to Scottish writers. It’s worth mentioning that neither phrase is used in modern Greek; but the letter is . ΙΩΤΑ/IOTA

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