Debatably...
Moot is an auto-antonym, meaning that it has two contradictory uses. As in the third panel, moot is often used to describe something that is not open or pertinent to debate. It’s original meaning, though, is ‘debatable’. The second woman thus appears not only to be disagreeing with her friend on the relevance of her singleness, but also to be making a little linguistic commentary in the process. Auto-antonyms show just how drastically language can change. Not only is moot now used in a way contrary to its original meaning, but the newer interpretation has, for many speakers, eclipsed the old. Indeed, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, this is ‘Now the usual sense in North America’. I personally was not even aware of the ‘debatable’ definition for moot until it came up in a vocabulary list when I was in high school. Eventually, the older meaning of this word may become obsolete. But I suppose that’s moot.
