jot and tittle

A reference to Matthew 5:18 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “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.” The Koine Greek phrase is ἰῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία (iôta hèn ḕ mía keraía). Jot (“the smallest letter or stroke of any writing, iota”) is derived from Middle English jote (“jot, tittle, whit”), from Latin iōta (“the Greek letter iota (Ι, ι)”), from Ancient Greek ἰῶτα (iôta, “the letter Ι, ι, the smallest in the alphabet; (figurative) a very small part of writing, jot”), from Phoenician 𐤉 (y‬ /⁠yōd⁠/). Tittle (“small dot, stroke, or diacritical mark; (figurative) small, insignificant amount, modicum, speck”) is derived from Middle English title (“small written mark or stroke; smallest part”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman title, tittle [and other forms], and Middle French titele, title (“inscription”) (modern French titre), and from their etymon Latin titulus (“epitaph, inscription”); further etymology uncertain, but thought to be of Etruscan origin.

• "He did not get every jot and tittle, but the plan ultimately adopted was viable."
• "If thou wilt be ſaved by the Law, it is not thy endeavour or doing; what lieth in thee that will ſerve the turn; every jot and tittle that the Law requires, muſt be fulfilled."
• "Then he gave me a Book of Jeſus his inditing, to incourage me the more freely to come: And he ſaid concerning that Book, That every jot and tittle thereof ſtood firmer then Heaven and earth."
• "They deſire indeed to be exact in every Jot and Tittle, in the very ſmallest Points of Chriſtian Practice. But they are not attached to one Point more than another; they aim at uniform, univerſal Obedience."
• "O all ye twelve Holy Fathers of our tribe! what a losing venture is this for one who hath duly kept every jot and tittle of the law of Moses.—Fifty zecchins wrenched from me at one clutch, and by the talons of a tyrant!"
• "Firm as the lasting hills, / This cov'nant shall endure, / Whose potent shalls and wills / Make ev'ry blessing sure: / When ruin shakes all nature's frame, / Its jots and tittles stand the same."
• "That is not to say, for a regime to be meaningfully constitutional, every jot and tittle of its formal constitutional language must be followed in every case. It is to say first, there must be a substantial correspondence between the actual arrangement of governing power and that described in the constitution and, second, the individual's rights created by the constitution must be taken seriously by those who exercise governmental power."
• "Furthermore, we may seek to offset our violation of her [Emily Dickinson's] major intentions by attending to her minor ones every so scrupulously, cleaving to an editorial policy that would respect every jot and tittle of her manuscripts—at least, every jot and tittle that the institutions of printing and publishing can practically accommodate—or, at least, every jot and tittle that can be accommodated at an affordable price."
• "Obedience to the rules of the dance is more poetic than military, more pomp than mundane legalism—for skilled dancers are less concerned with the jot and tittle of their regimen than with the perfect harmony of their movement."
• "The flip side of failing to recall an irregular form is tripping a false alarm for one when the verb is in fact regular. Word lookup is not instantaneous, and as it proceeds a few irregular verbs in memory might crudely match a regular probe. That could temporarily slow down the rule until the last jots and tittles of the word are properly matched and the false matches have petered out; only then will the rule be allowed to proceed unhindered."
• "Software makers pushed into the market with so-called customer-relationship management packages, enabling companies to track each jot and tittle of business they did with buyers."

• dot the i's and cross the t's