zot
English
editEtymology 1
editA sound effect. Popularized by the Usenet Oracle, a humorous Internet advice service, where the word was used as an irritated dismissal of a question.
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
editzot (third-person singular simple present zots, present participle zotting, simple past and past participle zotted)
- (slang, transitive) To zap, kill, or destroy.
- 1980, Kit Reed, Magic time:
- I reached for the handle and it zotted me — an electric shock to the elbow.
- 1997, Matt Lepinski, “Zotting”, in rec.humor.oracle.d (Usenet):
- I've heard rumors about the oracle zotting people and I have these questions about zot?
- 1997, Terry Moore, “COPS PUT LIVES ON LINE?”, in austin.general (Usenet):
- When a taxi driver, convenience store clerk, pizza deliverer, etc., gets zotted, it is on the back page of the local newspaper and not in out of town newspapers at all.
- 1998, RosieDawg, “watergardening and dogs and Rosie's new toy, OT-ish”, in rec.ponds (Usenet):
- electric fence - zotting me was fine (well really!) but they were worried about zotting the several dozen human puppies that hang around at our house.
Etymology 2
editSound effect in the comic strip B.C., first published in 1958, associated with both (1) the rapid tongue of an anteater character and (2) lightning bolts.
Noun
editzot (plural zots)
Interjection
editzot
Usage notes
edit- Associated with the UC Irvine Anteaters.
Etymology 3
editNoun
editzot (plural zots)
- (South Africa, Zimbabwe, ethnic slur, offensive, derogatory) A black person.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:person of color
- 2000 April 9, Squirrel, “SA Silence on Mugabe's actions”, in soc.culture.south-africa[3] (Usenet):
- Regretfully there is nothing that can be done about things .. just a time bomb ticking, ticking, ticking .. until one day soon, the zots will decide to take a property here, and a property there (they have after all started with vacant land and been successful), so why not progress to property?
- 2000 October 29, Nude Raider, “Here are the facts...”, in soc.culture.south-africa[4] (Usenet):
- (SA) ¶ The government has TACITLY condoned the actions of the zots by allowing them to continue their illegal occupation.
(Zimbabwe) ¶ The government condoned the illegal activities and progressed to the point where they were actively supporting it.
Anagrams
editAlbanian
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
edit- From older zota, from Proto-Albanian *dzwāpt, from *w(i)tspáti, from Proto-Indo-European *wiḱpótis (“clan leader”) (compare Lithuanian viēšpats, Avestan 𐬬𐬍𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (vīspaiti)), compound of *weyḱ- (“clan, extended family”) (compare Ancient Greek οἰκία (oikía, “house (clan)”), Avestan 𐬬𐬌𐬚 (viθ, “royal court”)) and *pótis (“master”) (compare Ancient Greek πόσις (pósis, “husband”), Tocharian A pats (“husband”)).
- From an old compound for "Sky father": Proto-Albanian *dźie̅u ̊ *a(t)t-, from *dyew- (“sky”) *átta (“father”), compare Sanskrit द्यौष्पितृ (dyáuṣ-pitṛ́), Proto-Italic *djous patēr (whence Latin Iuppiter), Ancient Greek Ζεῦ πάτερ (Zeû páter).[1] The radical zot contains the zero-grade radical of Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws.[2]
Pronunciation
editNoun
editzot m (plural zotër, definite zoti, definite plural zotërinj)
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editNoun
editzot m (plural zotër, definite zoti, definite plural zotërinj)
Declension
editSee also
editReferences
edit- ^ Demiraj, B. (1997) Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 7)[1] (in German), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, pages 431-2
- ^ Mann, Stuart E. (1977) An Albanian Historical Grammar[2], Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, →ISBN, page 72
Further reading
editDutch
editEtymology
editFrom Middle Dutch sot, a borrowing from Old French sot, from Medieval Latin sottus, of unknown origin. Possibly an expressive interjection, similar to modern French zut! (“damn it!”).[1][2]
Compare Old English sott (“foolish, stupid”), English sot, modern French sot.
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editzot (comparative zotter, superlative zotst) (today mostly restricted to Belgium and colloquial Southern Netherlands)
Usage notes
edit- Mainly Brabantian, dialectal in Hollandic.
Declension
editDeclension of zot | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | zot | |||
inflected | zotte | |||
comparative | zotter | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | zot | zotter | het zotst het zotste | |
indefinite | m./f. sing. | zotte | zottere | zotste |
n. sing. | zot | zotter | zotste | |
plural | zotte | zottere | zotste | |
definite | zotte | zottere | zotste | |
partitive | zots | zotters | — |
Synonyms
editDerived terms
editDescendants
editNoun
editzot m (plural zotten, diminutive zotje n) (today mostly restricted to Belgium and colloquial Southern Netherlands)
- a fool
Usage notes
edit- Same as above.
Descendants
edit- Afrikaans: sot
References
edit- ^ Metzler, I. (2015). Fools and Idiots? Intellectual Disability in the Middle Ages. United States: Manchester University Press.
- ^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “zot”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute
Mauritian Creole
editEtymology
editFrom French les autres (“the other guys”).
In French, the plural word autres is commonly preceded by a word, such as aux, les or mes, whose final s or x is not pronounced except in front of vowels, where it is pronounced /z/. As a result, autres was reanalyzed as having /z/ at the beginning.
Pronoun
editzot
- you, y'all (second-person plural personal pronoun)
- they, them (third-person plural personal pronoun)
Usage notes
editWhen usage might be ambiguous, zot is reserved for second-person plural and bann-la is used instead for third-person plural.
See also
edit- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English slang
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English
- English interjections
- South African English
- Zimbabwe English
- English ethnic slurs
- English offensive terms
- English derogatory terms
- sq:Religion
- Albanian terms inherited from Proto-Albanian
- Albanian terms derived from Proto-Albanian
- Albanian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Albanian 1-syllable words
- Albanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Albanian lemmas
- Albanian nouns
- Albanian masculine nouns
- Dutch terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Old French
- Dutch terms derived from Medieval Latin
- Dutch terms with unknown etymologies
- Dutch onomatopoeias
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɔt
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɔt/1 syllable
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch adjectives
- Belgian Dutch
- Dutch colloquialisms
- Southern Dutch
- Netherlands Dutch
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch masculine nouns
- Mauritian Creole terms derived from French
- Mauritian Creole lemmas
- Mauritian Creole pronouns