Meaning of "I don't give an iota"

[clive]

What is the origins of I don't give an iota

[mikewith]

An iota being a teenie-weenie little thing ("A very small quantity or degree; a jot; a particle", according to Websters) the phrase means 'I don't care at all/ not one little bit". As to who may have used it first, well 'iota' comes from the Ancient Greek, so it's probably been used on and off for rather a long time!

[geofbob]

"Iota" is the 9th letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding to our "i", and is the smallest letter, so has come to mean a very little amount. The English word "jot" is derived from "iota" and means exactly the same. So when Tony Blair said recently that he hadn't changed his mind (about Iraq) "one jot or iota", he was simply saying the same thing twice.

[andymoyle]

It means not to give up even the smallest thing. Iota is the name of a Greek letter i.

The phrase relates back to the Council of Nicea in 325 when the heretic Arius was trying to teach that Jesus wasn't God - he would use the word homoioiusios (of a similar substance) to describe Jesus and the Father. The rest of the council used homoousios (of the same substance) - the iota wasn't given! That small letter would have changed everything for the Christian faith - giving the iota would have meant Churches would teach Jesus wasn't really God.