Literary notes about moot (AI summary)
The term "moot" in literature carries a dual legacy that reflects both its modern connotations of debatable issues and its historical role as a term for assemblies. On one hand, authors deploy the word to denote points that remain open to argument or uncertainty—for instance, discussions on technical or historical controversies are labeled as moot, indicating that the matter is unsettled or speculative ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]). On the other hand, "moot" also appears as a reference to gatherings or judicial meetings in a community, evoking images of folk-assemblies, formal courts, or sacred sites like the Moot Hall, where communal decisions or traditional laws were executed ([7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]). This intriguing overlap is further enriched by its presence in medieval literature, especially in works by Chaucer, where its layered meanings contribute to the textured portrayal of societal and legal customs ([14], [15], [16]).
- moot , a. undecided , unsettled , debatable .
— from Putnam's Word Book A Practical Aid in Expressing Ideas Through the Use of an Exact and Varied Vocabulary by Louis A. (Louis Andrew) Flemming - The EMP damage is a moot point with other types of detonations, as its range is primarily limited to the area of intense physical destruction.
— from Health Service Support in a Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Environment Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures by United States. Department of the Army - It is a moot question whether changes of the latter kind actually occur.
— from The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg - Whether Bacon discovered this mixture, or whether he learnt it in his Asiatic reading, is a moot point.
— from Cassell's History of England, Vol. 1 (of 8) From the Roman Invasion to the Wars of the Roses by Anonymous - This, we may say, is the one moot question that this new-found document clears up.
— from The Iron Heel by Jack London - [302] The origin of the city's name is a moot question among antiquarians.
— from Historic Towns of the Western States - Carry this supposition further:—suppose that the town council is a ‘folk-moot’ which every inhabitant of the borough may attend.
— from Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England by Frederic William Maitland - In every village there was a moot-hill, or sacred tree, where the freemen met to make their own laws and arrange their agricultural affairs.
— from English Villages by P. H. Ditchfield - The same rule prevails at Appleby, where the bell hangs in a campanile over the Moot Hall.
— from Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland by Daniel Scott - "You didn't go to the Moot Hall yourself?"
— from In the Mayor's Parlour by J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher - The moot or meeting of the people of a village or hamlet began in Anglo-Saxon times, when such assemblies were held in the open air.
— from Chats on Old Copper and Brass by Fred. W. (Frederick William) Burgess - The open space between High Cross and the Moot Hall was packed with people, eager to enter the big court room as soon as the doors were thrown open.
— from In the Mayor's Parlour by J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher - Quite near to the Abbey, at the other side of the Market Place, the ancient Moot Hall claims attention.
— from Northumberland Yesterday and To-day by Jean F. (Jean Finlay) Terry - But forth she moot, for ought that may bityde, And forth she rit ful sorwfully a pas.
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer - This Troilus is clomben on the staire, 215 And litel weneth that he moot descenden.
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer - `And now, so this be sooth,' quod Troilus, `I shal wel suffre un-to the tenthe day, Sin that I see that nede it moot be thus.
— from Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
