# moot

Pronunciation: say "MOOT" /muːt/

## Adjective

1. Having no practical relevance or consequence, so of purely academic interest. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: No longer important in practice, so not worth arguing about except as an exercise.
   - _Once the company was sold, the question of who would lead it next year was moot._
   - _Once the concert was canceled, the argument over whether to drive or take the train was moot._
5. Open to argument or debate, and unsettled or perhaps impossible to settle. *(UK)*
   - Simple: Not decided, so people can still argue about it.
   - _How much the minister knew about the deal remains a moot question._
   - _It is moot whether the painting is really by Turner or by one of his pupils._

## Verb

2. To raise a question, idea, or proposal for discussion, or to discuss and debate it.
   - Simple: To suggest an idea or question so people can talk about it, or to discuss it.
   - _Several names have been mooted as possible successors to the coach._
   - _Before anyone could moot an alternative, the chair closed the meeting._
3. To make a question or issue irrelevant, or to declare it so. *(US)*
   - Simple: To make something no longer matter, or to say that it no longer matters.
   - _A settlement would moot the remaining claims in the lawsuit._
   - _The appeal was mooted when the city repealed the ordinance._
7. To argue or plead a case that has been invented for practice.
   - Simple: To argue a pretend case, the way lawyers argue in court.
   - _Teams from twelve universities will moot a fictional contract dispute next week._
   - _Mooting taught her more about advocacy than any lecture did._

## Noun

4. A mock court in which law students argue hypothetical cases for practice.
   - Simple: A pretend court where law students practice arguing made-up cases.
   - _The team spent weeks preparing their arguments for the international moot._
   - _Judges from the local bar volunteered to sit on the spring moots._
8. A person who follows you on social media and whom you follow back. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Someone you follow online who also follows you.
   - _We've been moots for three years but have never met in person._
   - _A moot of mine shared the fundraiser, and donations started pouring in._
6. A local assembly, usually one that met to make decisions for its area.
   - Simple: A meeting of local people, held long ago, to make decisions for their area.
   - _Freemen of the district gathered at the moot to hear disputes and agree on local rules._
   - _The great oak where the moot once met still stands outside the village._
9. A get-together for pagans to socialize, typically held at a pub.
   - Simple: A friendly meeting of pagans, usually held in a pub.
   - _The local pagan moot meets on the first Tuesday of every month in the back room of the Red Lion._
   - _Newcomers curious about witchcraft are often told to start by going to a moot._
10. A gathering of Rover Scouts, usually held as a camp lasting several days.
   - Simple: A camp or meeting of Rover Scouts that usually lasts several days.
   - _Our crew is raising money to attend the next international moot._
   - _The moot ended with a campfire shared by Rovers from many countries._
11. In many areas of Africa, a system of arbitration that aims to settle a dispute and bring the opponents back into the community rather than to impose penalties.
   - Simple: In many parts of Africa, a way of settling a fight that brings people back together instead of punishing them.
   - _The farmers took their quarrel over the field boundary to the village moot rather than to the district court._
   - _The moot ended with an apology, a small gift and a shared meal for both households._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To speak or say something, or to suggest it indirectly.
- (noun) Talk; spoken conversation.
- (noun) A whisper or insinuation, or gossip and rumors in general.
- (noun) In shipbuilding, a ring used to gauge the thickness of wooden pins.
- (noun) The vagina.
- (noun) The stump left after a tree is felled, or the roots and butt end of such a tree.
- (verb) Of a plant or cutting, to put out roots and start growing.
- (verb) To grub in the earth or unearth roots, as a pig or other snouted animal does.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4–6, 9–11** — Old English had *mōt and ġemōt for a meeting, which became Middle English mōt or ȝemōt. The Proto-Germanic noun was *mōtą, and the Proto-Indo-European root *meh₂d- meant to come upon or meet. Meet is related, and so are its cognates Danish møde and Swedish möte, which still mean "meeting". The adjective grew out of the noun.
**Meanings 2–3, 7** — The verb started as Old English mōtian and became Middle English moten, which meant to speak, converse or discuss. Its Proto-Germanic source *mōtijaną meant to meet, and it was built on *mōtą, the word for a meeting.
**Meaning 8** — A clipping of mutual, with a humorously altered pronunciation.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/moot (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).