zot

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.

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

1. (slang) 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 (on Internet newsgroup rec.humor.oracle.d)

     I've heard rumors about the oracle zotting people and I have these questions about zot?

   • 1997, "Terry Moore", COPS PUT LIVES ON LINE? (on Internet newsgroup austin.general)

     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 (on Internet newsgroup rec.ponds)

     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.

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.

zot (plural zots)

1. (US, slang) An anteater.

zot

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

• Associated with the UC Irvine Anteaters.

• (Archaic) (religion) Zojzi
• (Gheg) ɛot [zot] [1]
• (Tosk) zotë [zotə]

From older zota, from Proto-Albanian *dzwāpt, from *w(i)tspáti, from Proto-Indo-European *wiḱpótis (“clan leader”) (compare Lithuanian viēšpats, Avestan 𐬬𐬍𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌‎ (vīspaiti)), compound of *weyḱ- (“clan, extended family”) (compare Ancient Greek οἰκία (oikía, “house (clan)”), Avestan 𐬬𐬌𐬚‎ (viθ, “royal court”)) and *pótis (“master”) (compare Ancient Greek πόσις (pósis, “husband”), Tocharian A pats (“husband”)).

• IPA^(key): /zɔt/

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

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

• zotëri (Tosk),
• zotëni, zotni (Gheg),
• zotësi, zotërisht, zotoj,
• zotëroj (Tosk),
• zotënoj, zotnoj (Gheg),
• plural:
  • Tosk: zota, zotëra (def. zotërat)
  • Gheg: zotën, zotëna

• Tosk: zonjë
• Gheg: zôjë

zot m (indefinite plural zotët, definite singular zoti)

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

From Middle Dutch sot, a borrowing from Old French sot, from Medieval Latin sottus, of unknown origin. Compare Old English sott (“foolish, stupid”), English sot.

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔt

zot (comparative zotter, superlative zotst)

1. crazy
2. mad

Mainly Brabantian.

• gek
• getikt
• gestoord

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.

zot

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

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