name
Meaning 1
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
Motte
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/ˈmɒt/
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CMU ARPABET: M AA1 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
An argument which is uncontroversial and easy to defend (in the context of a motte and bailey fallacy).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- Coordinate term: bailey
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Alternative form of mott.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
* As a French, Walloon, and West Flemish surname, from Old French mot, motte (“embankment, hill, mound”), from Medieval Latin mota (“fortified height”), which could be of Celtic origin and from Gaulish *mutt, *mutta (compare Welsh mwd (“vault, arch, canopy”), Irish móta (“moat”), though this itself could have been borrowed from the English) or otherwise of Germanic origin and from the root of mud. Compare Delamotte, Demotte, Lamotte. * As an English surname, variant of Mott. * As a German surname, perhaps from Motten in Bavaria, first attested 837, from the personal name Moto (compare *mōd (“courage, bravery”)).
From French motte, from Anglo-Norman/Old French motte (“mound, hillock”). Doublet of moat.
Alternative forms.
Across languages
Translations
4 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Czech: pahorek — earth mound
- Galician: mota — earth mound
- Italian: motta — earth mound
- Sicilian: motta — earth mound
Real reading context