Moot vs Mute?

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Martyn

Bushcrafter through and through
Aug 7, 2003
5,252
33
58
staffordshire
www.britishblades.com
So is it moot or mute?

What am I talking about? Well I remember as a kid, making this error and my dad drilling it into me, it's probably one of the most common grammatical errors you could see on the internet and I hear is spoken too. I am referring to the phrase "moot point" ...or as it's commonly said in error ..."mute point".

It's such a common error, it hardly merits mentioning these days. The only reason I mention it, is because you might find the origin of the phrase interesting, it comes from an old legal term which means a debatable question, an equivocal issue open to argument and of no immediate relevance, so it the issue can be saved for a later time, when it can be decided at an assembly or meeting ....at a moot. As we all know too well, a moot is an old Anglo-Saxon word for a meeting.

So a moot point in bushcraft, could be a bushmoot point. Hehe - do you see what I did there? :D :D
 
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JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,481
Stourton,UK
You mean wheter it's mute or moot? I agree it's mute ...I mean moot. :D :D

It's moot as to whether it's mute, but mute would not be moot, or if you were mute, it would be hard to raise a moot point. Not that mutes are moot, I would never suggest such a thing.
 

armie

Life Member
Jul 10, 2009
266
7
61
The Netherlands
Let me add some confusion: what does "moot" mean?
My dictionary says that the English meaning is "object to debate, dispute, or uncertainty: Whether the temparature rise was mainly due to the greenhouse effect was a moot point"
while the North American meaning is: "having little or no practical relevance: The whole matter is becoming increasingly moot".

I only knew the English meaning, but all over de innerned I see the North American one. Is the English one still being used?
 

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