mut

Forms

mut (feminine muda, masculine plural muts, feminine plural mudes)^[1] The feminine is muda everywhere, though Mallorca has a popular analogical muta.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan mut, which is inherited from Latin mūtus (“dumb, inarticulate”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan mut, Spanish mudo, Portuguese mudo, Italian muto and Romanian mut.^[6][7] French uses a derivative, muet, of the old adjective mu.^[8]

De Vaan explains ⟨mūtus⟩ as “he who cannot say anything but mū” and reconstructs *mū̆-to-; he compares मूक (mū́ka, “dumb”) and Hesychius's μυνδός (mundós, “dumb”).^[9] Wiktionary takes it to an imitative root *mewH- (“to mutter, say mu”).^[1] The OLD's first sense is said of animals that can only mutter.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's first record of mut is the Catalan version of St Gregory's Dialogues, of the second half of the 13th century, in a copy of 1340.^[11] Coromines dates the word to the origins of the language and finds it in Arnau de Vilanova about 1300, Muntaner and Eiximenis.^[2] Llull uses it of a person unable to speak by a physical defect: Ramon, per què home mut no pot fer testament? “why can a mute man not make a will?”^[12]

Semantic evolution

Already in Llull the word also means silent, not saying a word: bo li fóra que estès mut “it would have been good for him to keep silent”.^[12] St Vincent Ferrer uses it of a man struck speechless, and Jaume Roig of a wife who is silent with her husband, as if she were mute.^[2][13] The DCVB adds a silent or quiet place, and a dark duck that does not call, Fuligula rufina.^[3]

Labèrnia gives the figurative sense of silent, taciturn.^[14] Pal·las records the mute map, one without names, and the silent letter.^[15] The GDLC adds the grammarians' use for the stop consonants of Greek and Latin.^[5]

Of the derivatives, mudesa is recorded in 1272 in the Costums de Tortosa, emmudir about 1900 (Maragall).^[4] Coromines doubts that tartamut is a Castilianism.^[2]

Timeline

• 1250–1299 – the Catalan Dialogues of St Gregory (copy of 1340), the first record in CICA.^[11]
• 1272 – the derivative mudesa in the Costums de Tortosa.^[4]
• late 13th century – Llull uses mut for the physically mute and for the silent.^[12]
• c. 1300 – Arnau de Vilanova; then Muntaner and Eiximenis.^[2]
• 1460 – Jaume Roig: com si fos muda.^[13]
• 1839 – Labèrnia: someone with an impediment of the voice organ, and figuratively silent.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Physically unable to speak; mute, dumb.^[5][16][3]
2. (zoology) Of an animal: having no cry.^[5]
3. Not saying a word, silent: Durant tot el sopar es va estar mut.^[5][16][3]
4. Unable to speak for a moment because of a strong emotion: mut d'admiració.^[5][16]
5. (linguistics) Of a letter: not pronounced.^[5][15]
6. (phonetics) In Greek and Latin grammar, of the stop consonants.^[5]

Noun

1. A mute person.^[5][1]

Word family

• emmudir
• emmudiment
• mudesa

Related words

• mutisme
• tartamut
• Latin mūtus
• Spanish mudo

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 860
3. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. mut
4. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 623
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. mut
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. mutus
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. mut
12. ^ a b c Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. mut
13. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. mut
14. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. mut
15. ^ a b Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. mut
16. ^ a b c Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. mut