This is the original phrase that has since been replaced by the obnoxious "mute point" by people with poor command of the classic English language.

The first written reference to moot point versus mute point that I know about showed up in a Readers' Digest joke trailer back in one of the 1995 editions. In the joke, a father wrote in to poke fun at his daughter for saying:

"It's a mute point. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

In other words, hitting the mute button on her figurative remote control to stop the conversation that she didn't want to have anymore. At that point it was a simple pun that intelligent people could laugh about. Now its a phrase that has taken on a life of its own.

Actually, a moot is a meeting, or a theoretical case discussed by law students for practice. In strict usage a moot point can either be an important point, unresolved question, or the opposite: a question that's been settled or something nobody wants to talk about anymore.

Mute point is historically incorrect usage, although it'll probably replace moot point within a few years in common language, if it hasn't already.

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