/ˈmɒt/
Origin* As a French, Walloon, and West Flemish surname, from Old French mot, motte (“embankment, hill, mound”), from Medieval Latin mota (“fortified height”), which could be of Celtic origin and from Gaulish *mutt, *mutta (compare Welsh mwd (“vault, arch, canopy”), Irish móta (“moat”), though this itself could have been borrowed from the English) or otherwise of Germanic origin and from the root of mud. Compare Delamotte, Demotte, Lamotte.
* As an English surname, variant of Mott.
* As a German surname, perhaps from Motten in Bavaria, first attested 837, from the personal name Moto (compare *mōd (“courage, bravery”)).
- A raised earth mound, often topped with a wooden or stone structure and surrounded with a ditch.
“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”
“"Birds are dinosaurs" is the bailey; "birds are more similar to dinosaurs than anything else" is the motte.”
Formsmottes(plural)