moot
/muːt
/- The motion explained that the company and the union had already reached an agreement on the retiree health benefit issue that made the previous dispute a moot point.
- How much the appeal of this movie derives from its subject and how much from Spacey is a moot point, I suppose.
- Which of the two camps was having a better time may be a moot point, but there can be no dispute as to which was living most successfully in the here and now.
Synonyms
- At some point, this whole debate may be rendered moot.
- But the time may be fast approaching when this debate becomes moot.
- If a foetus is not human, then it is not protected under the law and the entire abortion debate is moot.
- One possibility, which has increasingly been mooted, is the idea of a Universal Court for Human Rights.
- When Richard first mooted the idea of his book to his brother two years ago, David advised him on the business end of publishing.
- It was he who first mooted the idea of a reunion seven years ago.
Synonyms
- After the mid-16th century Reformation, when religious guilds were dissolved, it was used as a market cross and as a moot hall.
- Joseph Gerrald, after all, had proposed the Convention, likening it to the folk moot of Saxon England.
- Get to know as many people in the Pagan community as you can by going to moots, meetings, camps, festivals and so on.
- Basically they are people who follow the path on their own without the need for moots or covens.
- The last time I was there, nearly a decade ago, I was a law student competing in the Jessup International Law moot.
- Thanks do not go out to my alarm clocks, which failed to work this morning resulting in my awakening in absolute panic at 2 pm, with only one third of the moot prepared.
- The moot is tomorrow, my point of law absurdly impossible to argue, and the prospect of sleep tonight absurdly impossible to contemplate.
Usage
Note that a question subject to debate or dispute is a moot point, not a mute point. As moot is a relatively uncommon word people sometimes interpret it as the more familiar word mute.
Origin
Old English mōt 'assembly or meeting' and mōtian 'to converse', of Germanic origin; related to meet1. The adjective (originally an attributive noun use: see moot court) dates from the mid 16th century; the current verb sense dates from the mid 17th century.
Groups of law students are sometimes given the exercise of discussing an imaginary doubtful law case for practice. This is an old training method, which died out in the 19th century but has since been reintroduced into university law courses. A discussion of this kind is a moot, and in the USA a moot court is a mock court at which law students argue imaginary cases. These legal assemblies are behind a moot point, one which is subject to debate or is no longer of any practical purpose. Originally moot was used more widely, of any meeting or assembly. The word derives from the same root as meet (Old English).