Newsletter

Jots and Tittles is the #1 source for news and information about recent happenings in the department. 

Check below for the latest issue and links to backissues of Jots and Tittles. 

• Volume 5, number 1 (January 2022)
• Volume 5, number 2 (May 2022)

• Volume 4, number 1 (October 2020)
• Volume 4, number 2 (December 2020)

• Volume 3, number 1 (October 2019)
• Volume 3, number 2 (February 2020)
• Volume 3, number 3 (May 2020)
• Volume 3, number 4 was not issued due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Volume 2, number 1 (September 2018)
• Volume 2, number 2 (December 2018)
• Volume 2, number 3 (February 2019)
• Volume 2, number 4 (May 2019)

For issues of Volume 1, contact the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, "jot" originated as follows:

Greek iōta (ι‎), the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, gave us jot as a word for a very small amount—‘i’ and ‘j’ being interchangeable forms in medieval writing. To stress that someone cannot have any part of something, we might use the phrase not one jot or not one iota, which reflects the warning given by Jesus in St Matthew’s Gospel that ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law’ (a tittle here is a small stroke or accent). To jot something down appeared in the early 18th century and seems to have developed from the idea of a short sharp action as in writing a jot.

"Jot." Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, edited by Julia Cresswell. 3rd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI: 10.1093/acref/9780198868750.001.0001