different between mott vs nott

English

Alternative forms

• motte

Etymology 1

Probably ultimately from French motte; compare motte.

Noun

mott (plural motts)

1. (US, chiefly Texas) A copse or small grove of trees, especially live oak or elm. [from 19th c.]
   • about 1900, O. Henry, Hygeia at the Solito

     They were rolling southward on the International. The timber was huddling into little, dense green motts at rare distances before the inundation of the downright, vert prairies. This was the land of the ranches; the domain of the kings of the kine.

   • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster 2014, p. 39:

     We continued northwest, the grass tall with scattered thick motts of oak and the mesquites with their flickering leaves and the yuccas in bloom with their white flowers.

Etymology 2

See mort (“woman”), etymology 5.

Noun

mott (plural motts)

1. Alternative spelling of mot (“woman”)

English

Alternative forms

• not

Etymology

From Old English hnot, of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /n?t/

Adjective

nott (comparative more nott, superlative most nott)

1. (obsolete) Bald.
2. (now Britain dialect, Newfoundland) Of an animal: having no horns; polled.
   • 1850, "On the Farming of Somerset", Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, vol. XI, p. 679:

     For these and other reasons farmers who occupy good land in the vale with their hill farms are getting tired of the horned sheep, and use their hill farms only as summering-ground for nott sheep and bullocks.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles:

     Do ye know that riddle about the nott cows, Jonathan? Why do nott cows give less milk in a year than horned?

Verb

nott (third-person singular simple present notts, present participle notting, simple past and past participle notted)

1. (obsolete) To shear.
   • 1575, John Stow, Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles

     he caused his owne head to bee poiled, and from thencefoorthe his bearde to bee notted, and no more shaven.