The correct (or at least original) spelling for the term is "wot". "What, what!" is a malaprop that results from, and perpetuates, a misinterpretation of the term's meaning. "Wot" is very old. It comes from an archaic formal third-person conjugation of "wit" (the verb), which at one time used to mean "to know" or "to understand". The full phrase, then, was originally "you wot". It eventually ...
