Re: Fun Pairs -- mute point vs. moot point

["Sherman,Diane R" <Diane -dot- R -dot- Sherman -at- KP -dot- ORG>]

if i tell you that i've heard the term 'phat' used to mean 'excellent,'
it doesn't mean that i coined the term 'phat.'

i think my friend learned the term 'mute point' when she was a student
at oxford.   it seems to be a very logical construct, considering what
the random house 'word of the day' site said about 'moot point' having
two meanings that are complete opposites.

--diane

>----------
>From:  Tracy Boyington[SMTP:tracy_boyington -at- okvotech -dot- org]
>Sent:  Wednesday, September 24, 1997 1:13 PM
>To:    Sherman,Diane R; Technical Writers List; for al
>Subject:       Re: Fun Pairs -- mute point vs. moot point
>
>Sherman,Diane R wrote:
>
>> my friend (who is no legend; we worked together for years) did not coin
>> any new words or terms.
>>
>> all she said is that the term "moot point" is the opposite of "mute
>> point."   she must have meant that it's acceptable to use "moot point"
>> for the "debatable" definition and "mute point" for the "irrelevant"
>> definition.
>
>But she *did* coin a term. If she took an existing definition and
>applied it to a "new" phrase (actually a mangled version of an old
>phrase), she coined a term.
>
>Tracy
>
> --
>==============================================
>Tracy Boyington   tracy_boyington -at- okvotech -dot- org
>Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education
>Stillwater, OK, USA
>http://www.okvotech.org/cimc/home.htm
>==============================================
>

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