Learn English – “rendered mute” vs “rendered moot”

confusableshomophonesmeaningword-choiceword-usage

I have seen both, and now I am unsure when to use which. To the best of my knowledge "rendered mute" is roughly equivalent to "rendered speechless" and "rendered moot" to "rendered irrelevant". But I have also seen usage that contradicts this. Help?

Best Answer

Phrase "rendered moot," idiom:

At some point, this whole debate may be rendered moot.

(ODO, moot, adj, 2 - open 'More example sentences')

Phrase "rendered mute," literal/ metaphorical.

Some are deprived of the ability to reason and some made blind and others rendered mute.

When Jesus had cast out the demon, the mute man spoke. The crowd was amazed."

(Jesus the Messiah ..., p.182 GoogleBooks)

The use of mute in the idiomatic sense is a mistaken use of similar sounding words (that seems to be catching up of late).

See also:
enter image description here
Google nGram "rendered mute,rendered moot"

[EDIT]
Oxford Dictionaries Moot Trivia:

The word 'moot' can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon era of British history when a 'moot' was the meeting of prominent figures and nobles from the local society to discuss matters of regional importance.

See also:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/30052/meaning-word-moot-moot
http://www.finedictionary.com/moot.html

http://www.finedictionary.com/Moot%20point.html
versus
http://www.finedictionary.com/Moot-point.html

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moot
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/moot

Related Topic