mote
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /moʊt/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /məʊt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -əʊt
- Homophone: moat
Etymology 1
From Middle English mot, from Old English mot (“grain of sand; mote; atom”), but of uncertain ultimate origin. Sometimes linked to Spanish mota (“speck”) and English mud.[1]
Compare West Frisian mot (“peat dust”), Dutch mot (“dust from turf; sawdust; grit”), Norwegian mutt (“speck; mote; splinter; chip”).
Noun
mote (plural motes)
- A small particle; a speck.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 7:5:
- Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
- a. 1729, Edward Taylor, Meditation. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare a place for you:
- What shall a Mote up to a Monarch rise?
An Emmet match an Emperor in might?
- 1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 9:
- I wanted to shrink myself to a mote of dust, plunge into this pool I held in my own cyclopean hands, soar down these runs of light to places where light itself was born from this colloquy of dust.
Synonyms
Translations
A small particle; a speck
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See also
Etymology 2
From Middle English moten, from Old English mōtan (“to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compelled to, may, must”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtaną (“to be able to, have to, be delegated”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to acquire, possess, be in charge of”). Cognate with Dutch moeten (“to have to, must”), German müssen (“to have to, must”), Ancient Greek μέδω (médō, “to prevail, dominate, rule over”). Related to empty.
Verb
mote (third-person singular simple present mote, no present participle, simple past and past participle must)
- (archaic) May or might. [from 9th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- he […] kept aloofe for dread to be descryde, / Untill fit time and place he mote espy, / Where he mote worke him scath and villeny.
- (obsolete) Must. [9th–17th c.]
- (archaic) Forming subjunctive expressions of wish: may. [from 9th c.]
- 1980, Erica Jong, Fanny:
- ‘I shall not take Vengeance into my own Hands. The Goddess will do what She will.’ ‘So mote it be,’ said the Grandmaster.
Usage notes
- Generally takes an infinitive without to.
Derived terms
Etymology 3
See moot (“a meeting”).
Noun
mote (plural motes)
- (obsolete) A meeting for discussion.
- a wardmote in the city of London
- (obsolete) A body of persons who meet for discussion, especially about the management of affairs.
- a folk mote
- (obsolete) A place of meeting for discussion.
Derived terms
- folk-mote
- mote bell
- shire-mote
Etymology 4
From remote, with allusion to the other sense of mote (“a speck of dust”).
Noun
mote (plural motes)
References
- Worcester, Joseph Emerson (1910: Worcester's academic dictionary: a new etymological dictionary of the English language, p. 371
Anagrams
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