cowt

Here's something I learned today. When I say 'moot' I mean irrelevant. A moot point is one not worth arguing. That's what I thought the word meant.

Well guess what? IT TOTALLY IS THE OPPOSITE.

Here's the Oxford English Dictionary's take on moot:

"1. Originally in Law, of a case, issue, etc.: proposed for discussion at a moot (MOOT n.1 4). Later also gen.: open to argument, debatable; uncertain, doubtful; unable to be firmly resolved. Freq. in moot case, [moot] point."

Seriously? What happened there?

That being said, the second definition acknowledges the use normal in North America:

"2. N. Amer. (orig. Law). Of a case, issue, etc.: having no practical significance or relevance; abstract, academic. Now the usual sense in North America"

You can almost taste the disdain dripping from the definition there. Despite (or maybe because of) it's massive authority, claiming that the OED is run by a bunch of snobs is hardly controversial. But still, I love how the dictionarians (made up word) needed to emphasize how North American the second use is by mentioning it twice.

Language evolves in different ways, words change meaning quite frequently over the course of years. A surprisingly common way is what we have here: at some point a bunch of people on this continent didn't get what moot meant. By using it wrong, they began to pass it onto friends and children and eventually the meaning changes by sheer force of numbers.

Due to my insanity, a dilemma pops up. Since the word is still at a point where the usual definition is kind of wrong, which do I go with? If I use moot the way I'm 'supposed' to, I'll be using it incorrectly as it applies to daily life. People won't get what I'm trying to say and it'll inevitably lead to some hilarious misunderstandings involving Mr Roper. So every reasonable part of my brain wants to keep using it the way I always have. But for the next 6 months or so I know I'll be haunted by the Ghost of English Major Past every time I use it.

Side note: I love the word moot, it's got a great niche meaning and is fun to say--so abandoning it altogether is out of the question. I challenge you to work it into conversation at least once today.

There's some politics at play here, which don't really concern me. People are always very quick to decry the americanization of our language, but that's really just holding onto our old colonial masters as opposed to embracing our new ones. Either side is a bit distasteful to me.

The real star here is my rampaging need to analyze daily speech. Lacking any clear goals or methods, I'm on this eternally unsatisfying quest to play with and dissect language. And, that, my friends, often doesn't work.

I am still reeling from this information. It's going to take some time to get to grips with.