▪ I. † mot1 Obs.
Also 6 mote, 6–7 mott(e.
[a. F. mot word, saying, motto = Pr. mot-z, It. motto (see motto):—popular L. *mottum, altered form of earlier muttum (Lucilius) uttered sound, cogn. w. muttīre, mūtīre to murmur.]
1. A motto.
| 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie ii. 7 To what purpose the cote of a Gentleman is manteled and doubled, why some haue assumed motes or wordes, &c. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 830 Reproch is stampt in Colatinvs face, And Tarqvins eye maie read the mot a farre, ‘How he in peace is wounded not in warre’. 1600 Agard in Hearne's Collect. (1771) I. 261 As for motts, I am of that opynyon that they took theyre first beginninge from men's conceits of there being some speciall vertues in them; or from the etymologye of theyre own names. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. v. Wks. 1856 I. 55, I did send for you to drawe me a devise, an Imprezza, by Sinecdoche a Mott. 1659 Howell Lexicon, Let. French Prov., When you have cast an eye upon this Letter which goeth stuff'd with all Proverbs, old Motts, and Adages. |
2. A word.
| c 1645 Howell Lett. I. ii. xv, I haue been long in the Survay of these [the United] Provinces..[and] will conclude with a mot or two of the people. |
▪ II. ‖ mot2
(mo)
[Fr.: see prec.]
A witty saying.
| [1631 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. 198 That Mot of the Athenians to Pompey the Great, Thou art so much a God, as thou acknowledgest thy selfe to be a man, was no ill saying.] 1813 Jeffrey Contrib. Edin. Rev. (1844) I. 345 Another mot of hers became an established canon at all the tables of Paris. 1861 D. Cook P. Foster's Dau. vii, At length the day came when the Chevalier had uttered his last mot. |
▪ III. mot3 dial.
(mɒt)
Also motte; and see motty.
[? a. F. motte hillock; also, ‘a butt to shoot at’ (Cotgr.).]
A mark for players at quoits.
| 1847 in Halliwell. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour Answ. to Corr. 2 Dec., In the Country the mark in Quoit playing is termed a ‘motte’. |
▪ IV. mot
var. mort n.4, motte.