Re: Fun Pairs -- mute point vs. moot point

["Sherman,Diane R" <Diane -dot- R -dot- Sherman -at- KP -dot- ORG>]

oops, my original posting must not have been clear.

i picked the following up from the random house word of the day site:

"One sense, which picks up the "discussion" aspect, is 'able to be
argued at a moot', that is, 'open to discussion; debatable; arguable'.
This had always been the more common sense. Another sense, which picks
up the "hypothetical" side, has until recently been strictly a legal
sense: 'able to be argued only at a moot, but without significance in
the real world', that is, 'hypothetical; purely academic' and hence
'irrelevant'. The use of this sense, which is now about as common as the
original, is
what's causing the grief."

my friend (who is no legend; we worked together for years) did not coin
any new words or terms.

all she said is that the term "moot point" is the opposite of "mute
point."   she must have meant that it's acceptable to use "moot point"
for the "debatable" definition and "mute point" for the "irrelevant"
definition.


>----------
>From:  Beth Agnew[SMTP:bagnew -at- insystems -dot- com]
>Sent:  Wednesday, September 24, 1997 7:00 AM
>To:    Technical Writers List; for al
>Cc:    Sherman,Diane R
>Subject:       Re: Fun Pairs -- mute point vs. moot point
>
>This person with the English degree from Oxford who feels "mute point" is
>an acceptable variation on "moot point" is mistaken. She ought to know
>better. Giving it a definition is rationalizing its misuse. Now, if she
>wants to coin a _new_ term, "mute point", that's entirely different. (You
>should know _why_it's different.) This sounds like one of those urban
>legends -- apocryphal stories that become ingrained in the culture. Are we
>now going to have urban etymology?
>
> --Beth
>
>Beth Agnew
>Senior Technical Writer, InSystems Technologies Inc.
>65 Allstate Parkway, Suite 100
>Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 9X1
>mailto:bagnew -at- insystems -dot- com             Tel: (905) 513-1400 ext. 280
>                                Fax: (905) 513-1419
>        Visit us at: http://www.insystems.com
>
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