I was treadling away on some dreary machine at the gym and thinking about Bridget's dislike of "my bad." A phrase I _really_ hate came to mind, to wit, "it's a mute point." Drives me up the wall when ostensibly well-educated colleagues of mine use that phrase in a discussion. One of these days...
But, it got me to thinking, what about "it's a moot point?" I use that sometimes and am I using it correctly, I thinks. Off to the dictionaries. First my steadfast Oxford Universal Dictionary (1933, 1956) (takes up less shelf space than the OED) - moot = debatable, doubtful, undecided (among other things.) Next: my 1973 Webster's New Collegiate does have an added def. "deprived of practical significance..." So, in current American usage I seem to use "moot point" correctly, as in, "this point is unimportant in this discussion." Was curious then to see what one of our older dictionaries (husband's collection) had to say on the matter:
1943 Collegiate - "debatable"
1936 Webster's Universal Unabridged - "debatable"
1956 The Volume Library - "debatable"
Essentially, they all followed the Oxford's lead.
So, sometime between 1956 and 1973 we, Americans at least, acknowledged that we were using "moot" to mean "of no significance in this discussion."
Wow, glad I cleared that up. ;-) Hmm, may be time to go get the newest new dictionary...
Aenigma seems to think that OED should be Oedipal.
