Moot?

Friday's post raised the question of the meaning of "a moot point". To me, it has always meant a matter open to debate, and that is the sense in which I used it. This is quite different (in my usage) from saying that something is "moot". This means that it is irrelevant, not worth bothering with. The word originally meant a meeting called to discuss something specific and come up with a decision, but in recent times has come to be more associated with hypothetical debates at Universities and Law Schools and such, the end results of which are of no real practical importance. So "a moot point" follows the former usage, whereas to describe something as "moot" uses the latter meaning - for me, anyway!