motte

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɒt/

From French motte, from Anglo-Norman/Old French motte (“mound, hillock”). Doublet of moat.

motte (plural mottes)

1. A raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch.
   • 2013 September 13, Richard Huscroft, The Norman Conquest: A New Introduction, Routledge, →ISBN:

     The motte was a mound made of earth and surrounded by a ditch.

2. An argument which is uncontroversial and easy to defend (in the context of a motte and bailey fallacy).

   Coordinate term: bailey

   • 2023 February 10, “Why Birds Are Not Dinosaurs (And Why It Matters)”, in Answers in Genesis‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-03-15:

     "Birds are dinosaurs" is the bailey; "birds are more similar to dinosaurs than anything else" is the motte.

     Answers in Genesis is an organization which advocates in favour of Young Earth creationism.

Alternative forms.

motte (plural mottes)

1. Alternative form of mott

• motet, totem

From Middle Dutch mote, perhaps via Frankish *mot, *motta (“mud, peat, bog, turf”), from Proto-Germanic *mutô, *mudraz, *muþraz (“dirt, filth, mud, swamp”). Likely influenced by French motte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.tə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mot‧te
• Rhymes: -ɔtə

motte f (plural mottes, diminutive mottetje n)

1. a raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch; a motte

• mottekasteel

• totem

Inherited from Old French mote (“mound”), from Medieval Latin mota (“a mound, hill”), of Germanic origin, perhaps via Frankish *mot, *motta (“mud, peat, bog, turf”), from Proto-Germanic *mutô, *mudraz, *muþraz (“dirt, filth, mud, swamp”).

• IPA^(key): /mɔt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔt

motte f (plural mottes)

1. motte (mound of earth)
2. clod (lump of earth)
3. block, lump (of food etc.)

   Synonym: tas

   motte de beurre

   lump of butter

4. (colloquial) pubic mound, mons veneris

   Synonym: mont de Vénus

• “motte”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “mŭtt”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 6/3: Mobilis–Myxa, page 294

motte

1. inflection of motten:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

motte

1. Rōmaji transcription of もって

From Middle Dutch moeten, from Old Dutch muotan, from Proto-West Germanic *mōtan, from Proto-Germanic *mōtaną.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmo.tə/, [ˈmoʊ̯.te]
• Rhymes: -otə

motte (third-person singular present mott, past participle gemosst, auxiliary verb haane) (Eupen)

1. (auxiliary, with an infinitive → “motte” replaces the past participle) to have to (do something); must; to be obliged (to do something); to need (to do something).
2. (intransitive) to be necessary, to be required
3. (intransitive) to have to go, to need to go, must go
4. (intransitive, euphemistic) to need to go to the toilet

This entry needs an inflection-table template.