You may have heard coworkers or acquaintances refer to an inconsequential or irrelevant point as a moot point, or maybe you鈥檝e heard mute point instead. Fans of the TV show Friends may have heard a third variation: moo point (because, according to Joey, a cow鈥檚 opinion doesn’t matter). But which expression is correct, and what exactly does it mean?
The correct phrase is moot point. A moot point can be either an issue open for debate, or a matter of no practical value or importance because it鈥檚 hypothetical. The latter is more common in modern American English. The term comes from British law where it describes a hypothetical point of discussion used as teaching exercise for law students. This finds its roots in an early noun sense of moot: 鈥渁n assembly of the people in early England exercising political, administrative, and judicial powers.鈥�
The word mute means 鈥渟ilent; refraining from speech or utterance,鈥� and the pairing mute point has no canonized meaning in standard English. However, it鈥檚 easy to imagine how this mistake might make sense in some contexts, and perhaps that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so frequently confused with moot point. In a book of wordplay called 亚洲网紅露点birds: An Irreverent Lexicon for the 21 st Century, Liesl Schillinger humorously defines a mute point as follows: 鈥淲hen somebody in a group makes a good suggestion, but somehow nobody hears it.鈥� In a similar vein, Urban Dictionary defines it as 鈥渁ddressing the participants of a conference call while your phone is on mute.鈥�
As for moo point, Joey may be waiting until the cows come home for this creative coinage to catch on.
