2020-11-07 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M - moot
2020-11-07
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M - moot
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้องนี้ เป็นไปตามมาตรฐานการใช้ภาษา
การใช้คำอังกฤษ ไม่กำหนดมาตฐาน ถือตามส่วนใหญ่ที่ใช้แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง moot = ‘MOOT’
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
moot
debatable; undecided:
a moot point;
disputable, unsettled
Not to be confused with:
mute – silent; refraining from speech;
incapable of speech; to deaden or muffle the sound of
Dictionary.com
HISTORICAL USAGE OF MOOT
The modern noun moot comes from the Old English mōt “meeting, court,” typically used in compounds such as gemōt “(legislative or judicial) assembly, council,” folcmōt, folcgemōt “popular assembly (of a town or shire),” and witena gemōt “assembly of wise men.”
Nouns in other Germanic languages related to mōt include Old Saxon mōt (Old Saxon was the earliest recorded form of Low German; it was spoken in northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, and southern Denmark) and Middle High German muoz.
All of these nouns derive from Germanic mōta-, from which was derived the verb mōtjan, which becomes mōtian in Old Saxon, mētan and moeta in Old English, and meet in modern English.
In 16th-century England, a moot was “a hypothetical case or point for law students to practice on.”
This is where we get the terms moot point and moot court.
Moot later developed the sense “open to discussion, debatable, doubtful,” and finally “impossible to be settled.”
In American legal usage in the first half of the 19th century, moot developed an additional sense “having no effect, purely academic, abstract” (now used only outside legal contexts), but American usage also retained the original sense “remaining open for debate or consideration,”
leaving the meaning of moot point in conversation up for grabs:
Is it a debatable point, or irrelevant?
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Moot
Did You Know?
Noun
Moot derives from gemōt, an Old English name for a judicial court. Originally, moot named eitherthe court itself or an argument that might be debated by one. By the 16th century, the legal role of judicial moots had diminished, and the only remnant of them were moot courts, academic mock courts in which law students could try hypothetical cases for practice. Back then, moot was used as a synonym of debatable, but because the cases students tried in moot courts were simply academic exercises, the word gained the second sense, "deprived of practical significance." Some commentators still frown on using moot to mean "purely academic," but most editors now accept both senses as standard.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'Moot Point' or 'Mute Point'?
We'll get to the point.
For the most part, moot and mute keep their distance from each other.
No law student refers to “mute court,” and no one looks for a remote’s “Moot” button during commercials.
But in one common locution they’re now found swapping places rather often: the "moot point."
By the early 20th century, 'moot point'
began to mean "an issue that lacks practical significance."
Moot goes back to pre-Norman-Conquest England, when it referred to a collective assembly for meting out justice.
In contrast, mute, meaning “silent” or “unable to speak,” derives from a French ancestor that was imported to Britain by those same wily Normans. Thus, the two are hard to connect historically.
Strictly as a noun, moot is now only used in historical contexts (and on Game of Thrones).
As a verb (“the issue was ultimately mooted by the firm’s bankruptcy”),
it has been used mostly by lawyers.
And as an attributive, its medieval meaning still echoes in the name of a venerable law-school ritual: the mandatory moot court, in which students pose as lawyers on opposite sides of a case, preparing briefs and then arguing them orally as if in a courtroom.
Think mock trial, but on the appellate level.
The term “moot point” has been used since the mid-19th century to mean an unsettled issue appropriate for law-school debate. By the early 20th century it began taking on the related sense of an issue that lacks practical significance—related because the outcome of the rhetorical trial won’t change anything in the real world. Though this latter sense is relatively new, it has become (at least on this side of the Atlantic) perhaps more common than the original.
It was a moot point to consider whether the temptations that would be brought to bear upon him in his course would exceed the staying power of his nature.
— Thomas Hardy, Two on a Tower, 1882
While the term’s meaning expanded, its spelling remained unchallenged for over a century. But around 1960 we began to see the variant “mute point” popping up. And today, though “mute point” is still widely shunned in edited publications, it nevertheless can sometimes be seen slipping through here and there.
Say what you will about Paul Gascoigne - and most people have over the years - but he remains one of the most technically gifted players in Great Britain. For how much longer is a mute point - his tank is running low - but where there is a will, there is possibly a way.
— Russell Kempson, The Times (London, Eng.), 10 Sept. 1998
Since moot and mute aren’t swapped elsewhere,
why the mixup here?
Beyond their physical similarity, could it be that,
however unacceptable
“mute point” may be to purists, it really isn’t completely nonsensical?
Doesn’t the notion of a noisy debate that has gone figuratively silent,
or of an issue that is ”silent” in its real-world import,
actually seem kind of reasonable?
That said, keep in mind that should you use it,
the people ready to tell you it's incorrect will not have a mute button.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language
moot′ness n.
Usage Note:
The adjective moot is originally a legalterm going back to the 1500s. It derives from the noun moot in its sense of a hypothetical case argued as an exercise by law students. The noun moot in turn goes back to an Old English word meaning "a meeting, especially one convened for legislative or judicial purposes." Consequently, a moot question is one that is arguable or open to debate. But in the mid-1800s, people also began to look at the hypothetical side of moot as its essential meaning, and they started to use the word to mean "of no significance or relevance."
Thus, a moot point, however debatable, is one that has no practical value.
A number of critics have objected to this usage, but in our 2008 survey 83 percent of the Usage Panel accepted it in the sentence
The nominee himself chastised the White House for failing to do more to support him, but his concerns became moot when a number of Republicans announced that they, too, would oppose the nomination.
This represents a significant increase over the 59 percent that accepted the same sentence in 1988. Writers who use this word should be sure that the context makes clear which sense of moot is meant. It is often easier to use another word, such as debatable or irrelevant.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
moot
This word when used as an adjective means
- (1) Subject to debate, arguable, unresolved; and
- (2) of only slight importance or significance:
“This is a moot question.”
“Whether the players is black or white is a moot consideration.”
That is, “a moot question” is debatable;
“a moot point” is of no importance.
In law school, a moot court is a mock court in which contrived cases are tried as a method of training: in this situation,
moot is used to mean both “arguable” and “hypothetical.”
ความเห็น (0)
ไม่มีความเห็น