I am not at all a fussy about spoken English. Of course, written English ought to adhere a little more to standard, more precise usage. However, when my old boss Mr. T. would say, dismissively, that’s a “mute point” I just cringed. Yes, he would write it, too. And that’s not the only evidence that Mr. T. was a certifiable asshole, there is a lot more. I’ll save it for later.
I was reminded of Mr. T by another couple of assholes who were the defense lawyers for Donald Trump for his second impeachment trial. One properly used the term moot in his presentation when he said that since the former president (the other even bigger asshole Mr. T.) was already out of office so removal from office was moot. Meaning null, gone, useless. Lawyers also use moot as in “moot court” a practice or pretend court used primarily by students.
In England, the Anglo-Saxons would have a moot to gear up for battle or to celebrate victory or assemble for discussing their affairs. A moot was simply an assembly, a meeting, in Old English, it was gemot. The ge- prefix forms the past participle of mot. Modern English “meeting” and “meet” are related word all going back to PIE *mod- “to meet.” England has today places of assembly called moot-halls like a town assembly hall. However, in Anglo-Saxon times, the hall of assembly was the “mead-hall” like the one ravaged by Grendel. I suppose a meeting of the guys called for a great deal of mead drinking. And not entirely off the point, there was a lot of drinking required at an ancient Greek assembly of the boys, called a symposium. You could look it up. It’s a Greek guy-party, a “drinking-together”.
Two Strikes 