Saturday, September 12, 2020

Mute Point vs. Moot Point


"MUTE POINT"

The words "moot" and "mute" are rarely, if ever, confused in the English language except when it comes to this phrase. "Mute" means to refrain from making sound or to be silent, so this phrase is incorrect.

"MOOT POINT"

As an adjective, "moot" originally meant something which is "arguable or subject to debate." With this sense of moot, a "moot point" was something "open to debate." But, since around 1900, the adjective has gradually come to mean of "no importance or merely hypothetical." This usage arose out of an exercise in U.S. law schools involving the discussion of “moot” cases to practice argumentation. 

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