Moot > mute (point) eggcorn redux

[Damien Hall]

I've just ended a post by saying:

'Again, someone who makes a large part of his living making speeches in the
courtroom ought not to have his rhetoric affected by the emotion of a
subject. It looks to me, then, as if /mju:t/ for _moot_ is actually
progressing into the language.'

I should have said, more precisely, that it looks to me as if _moot_ is
actually gradually being replaced by _mute_ - since it's probably true that
_moot_ is not in many people's active vocabularies (except in this set
phrase), but someone who would be much more likely to have _moot_ in his
active vocabulary, a lawyer, still used _mute_ in its place.

Damien

--
Damien Hall

University of York
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
Heslington
YORK
YO10 5DD
UK

Tel. (office) +44 (0)1904 432665
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BORDERS AND IDENTITIES CONFERENCE, JAN 2010:
http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb/bic2010/

http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/people/pages/hall.htm

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