Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MOOT, v.t. [Sax. motian, to meet, to debate; Sw. möta, to meet, to fall, to come to or on; Goth. motyan. See Meet, of which this word is a different orthography. The sense of debate is from meeting, like encounter, from the French; for meeting gives rise to the sense of opposing, and the Dan. mod and Sw. emot, against, a preposition answering to L. contra, Fr. contre, is from this root.]

To debate; to discuses; to argue for and against. The word is applied chiefly to the disputes of students in law, who state a question and discuss it by way of exercise to qualify themselves for arguing causes in court.