colinian Posted November 5, 2016 Report Share Posted November 5, 2016 Ah, but you see, when I use it, I always use it to mean the same thing. But others use it with a variety of meanings. My attempt in using it is to bring stability to the proper use of the word. C Ah ha! Earlier in this topic I thought you were deprecating the delightful word "moot" which I remembered you had used recently. So now we know your reasoning for selecting unusual words. Bravo, Cole! Bravo, I say! Just for the record, in support of Cole's use of moot, from the Chambers online dictionary in WordWeb Pro: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- moot /moot/ noun Orig a meeting A deliberative or administrative assembly or court (historical) Its meeting-place Discussion A law student's discussion of a hypothetical case transitive verb To argue, dispute To propose for discussion intransitive verb To dispute, plead adjective Debatable ORIGIN: OE (ge)mōt (noun), mōtian (verb), related to mētan to meet mootˈable (adjective) mootˈer (noun) mootˈing (noun) moot case (noun) A case for discussion A case about which there may be difference of opinion moot court (noun) A meeting for discussion of hypothetical cases, esp a mock court moot hall or moot house (noun) A town hall or council chamber A hall for moot courts mootˈ-hill (noun) A hill used for meetings on which the moot was held (often confused with mote-hill (see under motte2)) mootˈman (noun) A law student who argues in moots moot point noun An undecided or disputed point ----------------------------------------------------------------------- You can see that there are far too many disparate meanings for the word "moot" that makes its use almost moot. Isn't the English language fu... uh... fun? Colin Link to comment
Cole Parker Posted November 6, 2016 Report Share Posted November 6, 2016 I'm sure I'm not the only one that has seen it used properly with the meaning 'debatable', and then commonly also used to mean 'not debatable, having a fixed, clear meaning'. I've even seen it listed both ways in dictionary definitions. I'm glad it's missing what I call it's incorrect form in Colin's dictionary. C Link to comment
colinian Posted November 6, 2016 Report Share Posted November 6, 2016 What's interesting about "moot" is that the original meaning is a "meeting" from which "debate" would seem to flow naturally. Colin Link to comment
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