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Michael Kay wrote -
> No, I don't think so. Moot as a meeting or assembly to debate matters of
> importance is Anglo-Saxon; hence Tolkein's Entmoot. And it is the only
> meaning you will ever hear in ordinary conversation this side of the
> Atlantic (I can't speak for specialist legal jargon). If someone says in a
> meeting that something is "a moot point", it means that there are arguments
> both ways. Often it's a polite way of saying "I disagree". In a UK meeting,
> the phrase is used to open a debate on the issue, in a US meeting, it's used
> to close it.
As an American, I am only used to the one usage that Mike mentions. I looked up the word, in an online 1913 Webster's dictionary, and it had one definition that matches the way I know it to be used (over here in the US, that is) -
3. To render inconsequential, as having no effect on the practical outcome; to render academic;
BTW, has anyone seen the new-ish "Mooter" search site (www.mooter.com)? They explain how thay came by their name at http://www.mooter.com/corp. It says
" We wanted a name that implied that an answer for one person is NOT necessarily a satisfactory answer for another person.".
Cheers,
Tom P
> > You've got a hold of the right stick, but at the wrong end,
> > unfortunately.
> > As so often, the Americans are the conservatives, not the innovators.
>
> No, I don't think so. Moot as a meeting or assembly to debate matters of
> importance is Anglo-Saxon; hence Tolkein's Entmoot. And it is the only
> meaning you will ever hear in ordinary conversation this side of the
> Atlantic (I can't speak for specialist legal jargon). If someone says in a
> meeting that something is "a moot point", it means that there are arguments
> both ways. Often it's a polite way of saying "I disagree". In a UK meeting,
> the phrase is used to open a debate on the issue, in a US meeting, it's used
> to close it.
>
> I've become familiar with the American usage through spending too much time
> at US-dominated W3C meetings (should they change the name?) but it still
> throws me occasionally when I read it without an American accent.
>
> Michael Kay
>
>
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