Iota

Equivalents

Latin

I / J

Cyrillic

И / Й

Hebrew

י

Arabic

ي

Phoenician

?

Coding
Capitals
Unicode number	U + 0399
Unicode name	GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA
HTML	& # 921;
HTML entity	?
Minuscule
Unicode number	U + 03B9
Unicode name	GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA
HTML	& # 953;
HTML entity	?

The iota or iota ( ancient Greek neuter Ἰῶτα "the smallest letter", modern Greek Ιώτα , capitals Ι, minuscule ι ) is the 9th letter of the Greek alphabet and has the numerical value 10 according to the Milesian system . It was identical in antiquity as it is today , namely [ i ] pronounced; from him the Latin letter i comes from.

In Mt 5,18 EU it says:

"For verily, I say to you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not even an iota or a line shall pass from the law, until everything is done."

The original meaning “the smallest letter” is used in the NT in the figurative sense “something very small”.

The term is often used in the literary context. So for example, sets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship in the Fourth Book, Chapter 16 the protagonists following in his mouth: "Best friend" said Wilhelm, "I can not also here iota give in." As well as in his play Faust. A tragedy. , Study room, in conversation between Mephistopheles and pupil: "With words one can argue excellently, with words one can prepare a system, one word can be faithfully believed, one word cannot be stolen from an iota ."

origin

The iota, like almost all Greek letters, comes from the Phoenician letter, namely iodine .

Examples

ancient Greek : ἰῶτα , iōta

literature

Iota. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 10 : H, I, J - (IV, 2nd division). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1877 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).

Web links

Wiktionary: Iota - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Wilhelm Gemoll : Greek-German school and manual dictionary . G. Freytag Verlag / Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Munich / Vienna 1965.

[GEMOLL-1] Wilhelm Gemoll : Greek-German school and manual dictionary . G. Freytag Verlag / Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Munich / Vienna 1965.