the point is...moot

tarav · Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 3:30 pm Post subject: the point is...moot

I would just like to say that I was so happy to see someone use the word moot(actually, mooted)correctly! I believe that it is one of the most incorrectly used words! On page 143 Grayling says, "...the idea is mooted that the Enlightenment's principles and themes have metamorphosed into their opposites". One can clearly see from that quote that the idea is discussed; not that the idea was unarguable. I even noticed that the word appears two more times in his book! People often mistakenly think that if a point is moot that it is closed for discussion, or not debatable. Actually, moot means that it is debatable and open for discussion. Now don't laugh too hard at me for getting all excited about the word moot! Sometimes it's the little things that make me happy!

Tiarella · Intern Joined: 17 Dec 2003 Posts: 152 Gender:

You must've loved Tolkien's ents, eh?

I suspect it's another English/American difference. My antique dictionary (the one that lives next to the computer, for the contrast) says:

Quote:
English History. A deliberative meeting, esp. of the freemen of a village, town, hundred, shire, etc. The term moot was applied to any assembly met to administer justice or for administrative purposes.

That's the way Tolkien used it, certainly.

I notice an entry for 'moot court', which is a mock court for students of law to practice hypothetical law cases. Wonder if that's how the common usage of 'moot' in America came about?

I've been using it the common way!

ginof · Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:19 am Post subject: Re: the point is...moot

Tara, I am sooooooo glad that this makes you happy. You must be reading chapter one of 'what is good' where the japanese author describes the pleasure derived from looking at wood

LOL!

tarav · Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:51 pm Post subject: Re: the point is...moot

Tia- The definitions referring to a moot court and deliberative meaning are all good! They jive with the meaning I mentioned. It's when people use moot to mean that the discussion is closed(clearly, the opposite of any of the definitions mentioned)that is not good!
Gino- I knew I'd get laughed at! Now, the staring at wood thing--that doesn't do it for me! Although I have imagined some interesting things in wood grain...which reminds me of a cool word a booktalk member once mentioned--pareidolia. Pareidolia is an illusion or misperception when presented with a vague stimulus.

wrkelly · Eligible to vote! Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 17 Gender:

grin.

I perhaps wasn't *quite* as excited as you, but maybe it's because in the past 2 weeks I've heard or read "mooted" used correctly 5 times! (counting Grayling's all as one, once on BBC radio, once in Al Franken's Lying Liars [I believe], and the others I don't remember). And yes, I noticed, because it is so rare.

I confess however I thought moot had become analogous to "regardless" and "irregardless" (where people use opposite words for the same meaning) except here they used the same word for opposite meanings! I had no idea that "moot" as "pointless to discuss or debate further" was actually incorrect!

Actually, I was much MORE thrilled by Grayling's language in general. He used 2 words I'd never SEEN before and 1 that I had seen but had no clue what it meant.

Now about that piece of wood I've been staring at...

PeterDF · Freshman Joined: 07 Jul 2003 Posts: 214 Gender:

Only three words you didn't understand?

Wow! I thought I had a reasonable vocabulary but I found loads :eek

Edited by: PeterDF at: 11/6/04 1:23 pm


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