moot

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See also: mööt and mõõt

English

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WOTD – 25 August 2008
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology 1

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From Middle English mōt, ȝemōt, from Old English *mōt, ġemōt (“meeting”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to encounter, come”). Cognate with Scots mut, mote (“meeting, assembly”), Low German Mööt (“meeting”), Moot (“meeting”), archaic Dutch (ge)moet (“meeting”), Danish møde (“meeting”), Swedish möte (“meeting”), Norwegian møte (“meeting”), Icelandic mót (“meeting, tournament, meet”). Related to meet.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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moot (comparative more moot, superlative most moot)

  1. (current in UK, rare in the US) Subject to discussion (originally at a moot); arguable, debatable, unsolved or impossible to solve.
    • 1770, Joseph Banks, The Endeavour Journal of Sir Joseph Banks, January 4, 1770 (published 1962):
      […] :indeed we were obligd to hawl off rather in a hurry for the wind freshning a little we found ourselves in a bay which it was a moot point whether or not we could get out of: […]
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 32”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      [T]he uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.
    • 1903, Walter Crane, Lewis F. Day, Moot Points: Friendly Disputes on Art and Industry Between Walter Crane and Lewis F. Day:
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 477:
      The extent to which these Parisian radicals ‘represented’ the French people as a whole was very moot.
  2. (Canada, US, chiefly law) Being an exercise of thought; academic.
  3. (Canada, US) Having no practical consequence or relevance.
    Synonyms: irrelevant, (if it was previously relevant) obsolete
    That point may make for a good discussion, but it is moot.
    • 2007, Paul Mankowski, “The Languages of Biblical Translation”, in Adoremus Bulletin, volume 13, number 4:
      The question [whether certain poetry was present in the original Hebrew Psalms] in our own time is moot, since various considerations have made it certain that, of all the hazards presented by biblical translation, a dangerous excess of beauty is not one of them.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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moot (plural moots)

  1. A moot court.
  2. A system of arbitration in many areas of Africa in which the primary goal is to settle a dispute and reintegrate adversaries into society rather than assess penalties.
  3. (scouting) A gathering of Rovers, usually in the form of a camp lasting 2 weeks.
  4. (paganism) A social gathering of pagans, normally held in a public house.
  6. (historical) An assembly (usually for decision-making in a locality). [from the 12th c.]
  7. (shipbuilding) A ring for gauging wooden pins.
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English moten (“to speak, talk, converse, discuss”), from Old English mōtian (“to speak, converse, discuss”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet, encounter”), a suffixed derivative of *mōtą (“meeting”). Related to etymology 1. See also mutter (which is a frequentative of moot).

Verb

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moot (third-person singular simple present moots, present participle mooting, simple past and past participle mooted)

  1. To bring up as a subject for debate, to propose.
    • 1960 January, “Talking of Trains: N.& W.-Virginian merger”, in Trains Illustrated, page 9:
      A number of other mergers of U.S. railroads are mooted, but the I.C.C. [Interstate Commerce Commission] has made it clear that its assent to the N.& W.-Virginian proposal, which was unopposed by competitors or stockholders, should not be taken as an indication that others will swiftly pass its scrutiny.
    • 2019 December 17, Howard Davies, “Will the UK really turn into 'Singapore-on-Thames' after Brexit?”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      The general idea was first mooted a couple of years ago by Philip Hammond, then Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, as a means of encouraging the EU to strike a friendly Brexit deal with the UK.
  2. To discuss or debate.
  4. (US) To make or declare irrelevant.
  5. To argue or plead in a supposed case.
    • 1641, Ben Jonson, Timber:
      There is a difference between mooting and pleading; between fencing and fighting.
  6. (regional, obsolete) To talk or speak.
    • 1535, William Stewart, The Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland‎[3]:
      In that mater now I will mute no moir.
  7. (Scotland, Northern England) To say, utter, also insinuate.
Usage notes
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In the fifth sense, usually found in the archaic phrase no boot to moot, as in: it's no boot to moot with her (it is no use to talk/reason/plead with her).

In rural northern dialects of the UK, usually used together with the verbs mell and spell, where moot is used instead of talk and say; mell used instead of speak and converse; and spell instead of tell and relate. The verb moot in the sense to talk, say, utter etc., is part of an informal in-group speak or register wherein speakers (mostly of northern dialects) use this and the above-mentioned words when talking with one another and when talking with outsiders or strangers they, usually, only use the words like say, talk, speak etc. For example, if a mother is talking with her child she is much more likely to use words like moot, mell and spell, however if she is speaking with a stranger from the South she is extremely unlikely to use such words. Also, such words are usually considered taboo in formal contexts.

Noun

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moot (countable and uncountable, plural moots)

  1. (Scotland, Northern England) A whisper, or an insinuation, also gossip or rumors.
  2. (Scotland, Northern England, rustic) Talk.
Translations
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References
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Further reading

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Etymology 3

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Unknown.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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moot (plural moots)

  1. (Australia) Vagina.

References

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  • The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2005, →ISBN, page vol. 2, p. 1320

Etymology 4

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From Dutch moot (“piece”).

Noun

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moot (plural moots)

  1. (West Country) The stump of a tree; the roots and bottom end of a felled tree.
Derived terms
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Verb

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moot (third-person singular simple present moots, present participle mooting, simple past and past participle mooted)

  1. (West Country) To take root and begin to grow.
  2. (West Country) To turn up soil or dig up roots, especially an animal with a snout.
    • 1867, William Frederick Rock, Jim and Nell‎[5], page 24:
      "Zarch tha whole worl', vrom Guenever / To Squier Mules' ta Muddever, / Moot iv'ry brack about un.

Etymology 5

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Clipping of mutual with humorously altered pronunciation.

Noun

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moot (plural moots)

  2. (Internet slang, endearing) A mutual follower on a social media platform.
    • 2020, @healer_katara, "Café au Twitter", ZaofuToday, Issue 1, page 10:
      Eid Mubarak to all my muslim moots out there
    • 2021, @DIORJAEYUN, "NCity Small Business", EnVi, Winter 2021, page 222:
      I just simply post them in my main Twitter account, then hoping that my moots will like and retweet them.
    • 2022, anonymous, quoted in Fayika Farhat Nova et al., "Cultivating the Community: Inferring Influence Within Eating Disorder Networks on Twitter", Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, January 2022 (article link):
      RT: hi..jst joined #edtwt! let’s be moots and rt each other
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:moot.
See also
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References

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Anagrams

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Bikol Central

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /moˈʔot/ [moˈʔot]
  • Hyphenation: mo‧ot

Noun

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mòot (Basahan spelling ᜋᜓᜂᜆ᜔)

  1. Misspelling of muot.

Dutch

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Etymology

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Ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *maitaną. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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moot m (plural moten, diminutive mootje n)

  1. a thick slice or a cut, especially of fish
  2. (by extension) a chunk of any whole; a part

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Papiamentu: mochi (from the diminutive)

Anagrams

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