Ooooh, you used the word “whit”.
Here’s another word whose use in the BoM, a supposed “ancient record of a “lost” tribe of Israel” can’t be explained…
Alma 42: 25 What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God. “
“...whit...”????
Origin:
1470–80; perh[aps] an alter[ation] of ME wiht
wiht origin:
From Germanic *wextiz. Cognate with Old Saxon wiht (Dutch wicht), Old High German wiht (German Wicht), Old Norse vættr (exceptional creature), vætr, véttr, or vétr (Danish vætte, Swedish vätte), Gothic (waihts).(ca. 12th c.)
[edit] Noun - wiht (plural wihtu)
creature, person, thing, being
Descendants: English: wight; whit
So here we have another example of a word used in the BoM whose origins can be traced as far back as the 12th century, but I can’t trace it back any further.
How did such a word come to be used in a book supposedly written hundreds of years earlier and never be known in another language until the Norse, Germanic and Scandinavian cultures came onto the scene?
Hmmm, I guess we’re just supposed to ignore the little man behind the curtain manning the controls?
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From Webster 1828 whit another word for jot
Your search [word => ‘whit’ ] returned 73 results.
whit
WHIT, n. [L.] A point; a jot; the smallest part or particle imaginable. It is used without a preposition. He is not a whit the wiser for experience.
It does not me a whit displease.
The regular construction would be by a whit, or in a whit. In these phrases, a whit may be interpreted by in the least, in the smallest degree.
Your search [word => ‘jot’ ] returned 2 results.
jot
JOT, n. [ Heb. yod.] An iota; a point; a tittle; the least quantity assignable.
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law till all shall be fulfilled. Matt.5.
A man may read much, and acquire not a jot of knowledge, or be a jot the wiser.
JOT, v.t. To set down; to make a memorandum of.
Jot or tittle
Meaning
A tiny amount.
Origin
The phrase ‘jot or tittle’ is somewhat tautological, as both jot and tittle refer to tiny quantities. It has passed into English via William Tindale’s translation of the New Testament in 1526. It appears there in Matthew 5:18:
One iott or one tytle of the lawe shall not scape.
The more familiar language of the King James Version, 1611, renders that verse as:
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
A jot is the name of the least letter of an alphabet or the smallest part of a piece of writing. It is the Anglicized version of the Greek iota - the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, which corresponds to the Roman ‘i’. This, in turn, was derived from the Hebrew word jod, or yodr, which is the the smallest letter of the square Hebrew alphabet. Apart from its specialist typographical meaning, we still use the word jot more generally to mean ‘a tiny amount’. Hence, when we have a brief note to make, we ‘jot it down’.
A tittle, rather appropriately for a word which sounds like a combination of tiny and little, is smaller still. It refers to a small stroke or point in writing or printing. In classical Latin this applied to any accent over a letter, but is now most commonly used as the name for the dot over the letter ‘i’. It is also the name of the dots on dice. In medieval calligraphy the tittle was written as quite large relative to the stem of the ‘i’. Since fixed typeface printing was introduced in the 15th century the tittle has been rendered smaller.
The use of the word ‘dot’ as a small written mark didn’t begin until the 18th century. We may have been told at school to dot our i’s; Chaucer and Shakespeare would have been told to tittle them.
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For Pete’s sake Resty, you’re helping SZonian prove his point, LOL!
Thanks, resty.
You see, if the BoM was as old as claimed, the word “jot” would probably have been more appropriate, yet even it only goes back to circa 16 A.D.
Instead, a word more commonly used during JS’s era to describe “a little” was used.
Since it’s agreed that the BoM “era” predates the NT, the use of either word in the BoM would be suspect.
Thanks again!