moot hall
Also 4 mut halle, 4–6 mot(e hall(e, 5 moyt halle, mute hall(e, 6 moute hal.
[f. moot n.1 + hall1.]
A hall in which a moot is held. a. A council chamber; a town hall; a judgement hall. (Now only Hist. and in names of buildings surviving in certain English towns.) b. In the inns of court, a hall where moot cases were argued.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 123 Þei ledden Jesus..in to þe Mut-halle. c 1400 Gamelyn 717 Gamelyn com boldelich in-to the moot-halle. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 299 Saynt Leonard apperid in myddest of þe mute-hall. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 729/22 Hoc pretorium, a moythalle. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 253 He was brought forth agayn of the mote hall, & presented to the iewes. 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. ii. vi. H vj b, The scribes pray me, for maine affayres, to haste the moute hal fro. 1648 Siege of Colchester in Antiquary Apr. (1880) 168 Fairfax..appointed a Council of War which met at the Moot Hall. 1677 Nicolson Gloss. Cumb. & Westm. in Trans. R. Soc. Lit. (1870) IX. 316 Moothall, guildhall. 1684 Cowel's Interpr. s.v. Moot, The places where Moot-Cases were argued, was anciently called a Moot-hall. 1794 W. Hutchinson Hist. Cumbld. I. 253 The hall in which the assizes are held at Carlisle, still goes by the name of the mote, or moot-hall. 1865 Reader 5 Aug. 144 [Hexham] A picturesque moot-hall and prison in one. 1905 Athenæum 23 Sept. 402/2 Kindly coastguards had stretched flags from the old Moot Hall [Aldeburgh] to the houses opposite. |