zot

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See also: Zot and zòt

English

Etymology 1

A 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

  • (file)

Verb

zot (third-person singular simple present zots, present participle zotting, simple past and past participle zotted)

  1. (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

Sound 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

zot (plural zots)

  1. (US, slang) An anteater.

Interjection

zot

  1. (US) The characteristic sound made by an anteater's tongue or by lightning.

Usage notes

Etymology 3

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “From Dutch zot or Afrikaans sot?”

Noun

zot (plural zots)

  1. (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 (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 (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.
    • 2002 July 5, Alistair, “Re: Tobacco barn and other assets- disassembly instructions”, in soc.culture.zimbabwe (Usenet):
      The zots will destroy the barns, the homesteads, the tractors, everything - reducing them to their component parts without the aid of explosives.

Albanian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

zot m (plural zotër, definite zoti, definite plural zotërit)

  1. master, headman
  2. boss, head
  3. (religion) Lord, God
  4. sir, mister

Derived terms

Related terms

Noun

zot m (plural zotë, definite zoti, definite plural zotët)

  1. landowner, owner of a wealthy estate
  2. lord, head of a wealthy family with servants

Declension

See also

References

  1. ^ Demiraj, B. (1997) Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz [Albanian Etymologies: ] (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 7)‎ (in German), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, pages 431-2
  2. ^ Mann, Stuart E. (1977) An Albanian Historical Grammar, Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, →ISBN, page 72

Further reading

  • Jungg, G. (1895) “ɛot”, in Fialuur i voghel sccȣp e ltinisct [Small Albanian–Italian dictionary], page 151

Dutch

Etymology

From 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!).

Compare Old English sott (foolish, stupid), English sot, modern French sot.

Pronunciation

Adjective

zot (comparative zotter, superlative zotst) (today mostly restricted to Belgium and colloquial Southern NL)

  1. crazy
  2. mad

Usage notes

Declension

Inflection 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

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Afrikaans: sot
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: soto
  • Negerhollands: sot

Noun

zot m (plural zotten, diminutive zotje n) (today mostly restricted to Belgium and colloquial Southern NL)

  1. A fool.

Usage notes

  • Same as above.

Descendants

References

  1. ^ Metzler, I. (2015). Fools and Idiots? Intellectual Disability in the Middle Ages. United States: Manchester University Press.
  2. ^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “zot”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

Mauritian Creole

Etymology

From 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

zot

  1. you, y'all (second-person plural personal pronoun)
  2. they, them (third-person plural personal pronoun)

Usage notes

When usage might be ambiguous, zot is reserved for second-person plural and bann-la is used instead for third-person plural.

See also