Mute
/mjuːt/noun
Unable or unwilling to speak; producing little or no sound.
Did you know?Its deepest ancestor is the Proto-Indo-European root *meu-*, meaning “to be silent, dumb, or confused,” which also gave rise to words for silence and speechlessness across Indo-European languages.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*meu-
“to be silent, dumb, or confused”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*mūtaz
“silent, speechless”
Old English
OE
mӯt
“silent, speechless”
Middle English
ME
muten
“to make silent; to be silent”
Modern English
English
mute
“unable or unwilling to speak; silent”