Look up the real definition of this
word and you’ll be quite surprised!
It means exactly the opposite of what
you think it does!
(this was in response to a Cecil’s mailbox
item on burned-out stars…:
"Most stars are much farther away than that. The farthest star astronomers have found is over 12 billion light years away! That means we’re seeing it as it was 12 billion years ago, and have no clue what it is like now. Has it blown up or burned out? In 12 billion years, the odds are pretty good that it has, but we have no way of knowing, and won’t be able to know what it looks like “now” until 12 billion years in the future! At that point, the question will be moot as far as you and I are concerned. "
Here’s the link: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/moldstars.html
On your point, Paul, there seems to be some contention. This is one of those words that is changing in common usage. The older meaning was ‘open to debate’ (I’m limiting to the use of ‘moot’ as an adjective). Since law schools use predetermined cases for debate, the word came to mean ‘already decided, irrelevant.’ This later meaning is starting to be the most common one, apparently (it’s certainly the first one I think of).
Whenever a word starts to change its common meaning, some want to hold on, saying the new interpretation is ‘wrong.’ But the language is a living thing, and tends to do things its own way.
For a quick look at the definition of ‘moot’ with a paragraph on its change in meaning, look here: http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=moot
“If you prick me, do I not…leak?” --Lt. Commander Data
Another take from another lexicographer:
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/?date=19961112
“The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord
“Moot” is the territorial call of an owl with a speech impediment. That’s common knowledge. My business, Summit Valley Owl Trainers, has helped several such owls, including one who had been adopted as an owlet and raised by a dog breeder. The poor fellow barked, but we got him hooting cutely in three and a half weeks. He’s now harvesting bunnies for a local vegetable farmer. Cuter hooting can be trained.
AskNott
"Measure twice, cut once. Dang! Measure again, cut again.
AskNott, that may be true in your business, but in Iowa we knew that Moot was the sound made by a cow with the mumps.
So Paul, your basic point is that we mis-use the term Moot, as in “Moot point”?