Mute vs Mutter - What's the difference?
mute | mutter |
Not having the power of speech; dumb.
* Ovid: Metamorphoses , translated by (John Dryden)
Silent; not making a sound.
* Milton
* 1956 , Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins (?, translators), Lion Feuchtwanger (German author), Raquel: The Jewess of Toledo'' (translation of '' ), Messner, page 178:
Not uttered; unpronounced; silent; also, produced by complete closure of the mouth organs which interrupt the passage of breath; said of certain letters.
Not giving a ringing sound when struck; said of a metal.
(obsolete, theatre) An actor who does not speak; a mime performer.
* 1668 OF Dramatick Poesie, AN ESSAY. By JOHN DRYDEN Esq; ((John Dryden))
A person who does not have the power of speech.
A hired mourner at a funeral; an undertaker's assistant.
*
* 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia'', Faber & Faber 1992 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 481:
(music) An object for dulling the sound of an instrument, especially a brass instrument, or damper for pianoforte; a sordine.
To silence, to make quiet.
To turn off the sound of.
To cast off; to moult.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.
(in Indian restaurants) peas
To utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=June 28
, author=Jamie Jackson
, title=Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal
, work=the Guardian
To speak softly and incoherently, or with imperfect articulations.
* Dryden
To make a sound with a low, rumbling noise.
* Alexander Pope
As a verb mute
is .As an adjective mute
is mutated.As a noun mutter is
.mute
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), (etyl) (m), from .Adjective
(er)- Thus, while the mute creation downward bend / Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, / Man looks aloft; and with erected eyes / Beholds his own hereditary skies. / From such rude principles our form began; / And earth was metamorphos'd into Man.
- All the heavenly choir stood mute , / And silence was in heaven.
- “ The heathens have broken into Thy Temple, and Thou art silent! Esau mocks Thy Children, and Thou remainest mute'! Show thyself, arise, and let Thy Voice resound, Thou '''mutest''' among all the ' mute !”
Noun
(en noun)- As for the poor honest Maid, whom all the Story is built upon, and who ought to be one of the principal Actors in the Play, she is commonly a Mute in it:
- The little box was eventually carried in one hand by the leading mute , while his colleague, with a finger placed on the lid, to prevent it from swaying, walked to one side and a little to the rear.
- Then followed a long silence during which the mute turned to them and said, ‘Of course you'll be wanting an urn, sir?’
Verb
(mut)- Please mute the music while I make a call.
Derived terms
* muterSee also
* autism * dumbEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m), probably a shortened form of (m), ultimately from (etyl).Verb
(mut)- (Ben Jonson)
Etymology 3
(etyl) (lena) .Verb
(mut)- Have I muted all my feathers?
mutter
English
Noun
(en noun)- The prisoners were docile, and accepted their lot with barely a mutter .
Derived terms
* mutter paneerVerb
(en verb)- You could hear the students mutter as they were served sodden spaghetti, yet again, in the cafeteria.
- The beggar muttered words of thanks, as passersby dropped coins in his cup.
citation, page= , passage=This set – the set of Rosol's life – was studded with aces and menacing ground-strokes that left Nadal an impotent spectator often muttering to himself and at the umpire regarding a perceived misdemeanour by his opponent.}}
- The asylum inmate muttered some doggerel about chains and pains to himself, over and over.
- Meantime your filthy foreigner will stare, / And mutter to himself.
- April could hear the delivery van's engine muttering in the driveway.
- Thick lightnings flash, the muttering thunder rolls.
