Zotte

From Middle High German zote with ideophonic gemination of t > tt, from Old High German zota (alongside zata and zoto m, zato),^[1] from Proto-Germanic *tadǭ (“tousled mass”) (whence also English tod (“bush, flock”), Old Norse taða (“manured meadow”)), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂-tós, a participial form of *deh₂- (“to split, cut, divide”).^[2] The form shows Upper German hindrance of lengthening before -t- (as predominantly in Modern German); a Central German doublet is Zote (“dirty joke”), which see.

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡sɔtə/

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Zotte f (genitive Zotte, plural Zotten)

1. a flock of hair or fur clotted by moisture, dirt etc.

   Synonym: Zottel

   Der Eisbär stieg aus dem Wasser und schüttelte seine nassen Zotten.

   The polar bear got out of the water and shook his wet fur.

   • 1883–1885, Friedrich Nietzsche, “Von den berühmten Weisen”, in Also sprach Zarathustra [Thus Spoke Zarathustra]‎, Zweiter Theil:

     Das Fell des Raubthiers, das buntgefleckte, und die Zotten des Forschenden, Suchenden, Erobernden!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Zottel
• zottig, zottelig

• “Zotte” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.