# motte
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmɒt/

### Etymology 1

From French motte, from Anglo-Norman/Old French motte (“mound, hillock”). Doublet of moat.

#### Noun

motte (plural mottes)
* A raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch.
** 2013 September 13, Richard Huscroft, The Norman Conquest: A New Introduction, Routledge, →ISBN:The motte was a mound made of earth and surrounded by a ditch.
* An argument which is uncontroversial and easy to defend (in the context of a motte and bailey fallacy).
    Coordinate term: bailey
** 2023 February 10, “Why Birds Are Not Dinosaurs (And Why It Matters)”, in Answers in Genesis‎, archived from the original on 2023-03-15:"Birds are dinosaurs" is the bailey; "birds are more similar to dinosaurs than anything else" is the motte.Answers in Genesis is an organization which advocates in favour of Young Earth creationism.

##### Derived terms

* motte and bailey

##### Related terms

* moat

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

Alternative forms.

#### Noun

motte (plural mottes)
* Alternative form of mott

### Anagrams

* motet, totem

## Dutch
### Etymology

From Middle Dutch mote, perhaps via Frankish *mot, *motta (“mud, peat, bog, turf”), from Proto-Germanic *mutô, *mudraz, *muþraz (“dirt, filth, mud, swamp”). Likely influenced by French motte.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmɔ.tə/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: mot‧te
* Rhymes: -ɔtə

### Noun

motte f (plural mottes, diminutive mottetje n)
* a raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch; a motte

#### Derived terms

* mottekasteel

### Anagrams

* totem

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Old French mote (“mound”), from Medieval Latin mota (“a mound, hill”), of Germanic origin, perhaps via Frankish *mot, *motta (“mud, peat, bog, turf”), from Proto-Germanic *mutô, *mudraz, *muþraz (“dirt, filth, mud, swamp”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mɔt/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔt

### Noun

motte f (plural mottes)
* motte (mound of earth)
* clod (lump of earth)
* block, lump (of food etc.)
    Synonym: tas
    motte de beurrelump of butter
* (colloquial) pubic mound, mons veneris
    Synonym: mont de Vénus

#### Derived terms

* emmotter
* émottage
* émottement
* émotteur
* La Grande-Motte
* mini-motte
* motteux
* mottier
* motton
* rase-motte
* taper dans la motte

### Further reading

* “motte”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
* Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “mŭtt”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 6/3: Mobilis–Myxa, page 294

## German
### Verb

motte
* inflection of motten:
** first-person singular present
** first/third-person singular subjunctive I
** singular imperative

## Japanese
### Romanization

motte
* Rōmaji transcription of もって

## Limburgish
### Etymology

From Middle Dutch moeten, from Old Dutch muotan, from Proto-West Germanic *mōtan, from Proto-Germanic *mōtaną.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmo.tə/, [ˈmoʊ̯.te]
* Rhymes: -otə

### Verb

motte (third-person singular present mott, past participle gemosst, auxiliary verb haane) (Eupen)
* (auxiliary, with an infinitive → “motte” replaces the past participle) to have to (do something); must; to be obliged (to do something); to need (to do something).
* (intransitive) to be necessary, to be required
* (intransitive) to have to go, to need to go, must go
* (intransitive, euphemistic) to need to go to the toilet

#### Conjugation

This entry needs an inflection-table template.