I have made many references to Motte-and-Bailey arguments over the last couple of years. It is a new phrase in the last decade or two, but related concepts have long been known in logic. There is the idea from advertising of bait-and-switch, which is also used shadily in discussion, and Earl Wajenberg just introduced me to the word paltering, which also sounds rather Shakespearean.
Discussing this last night at Pub Night and trying to explain the origin to an older academic who had not encountered it (but picked it up quickly, especially when I related it to the elastic term "gnosticism"), I realised I was still uncertain about the derivation. Motte was clearly related to "moat," which I took as the exterior ditch with water, sometimes even a diverted river, surrounding a castle. This looked more like the Bailey part of the story, but the motte refers to the central well-fortified area, not the expansion. I had eventually adjusted due to context, but it still nagged at me that the motte seemed to be quite distinct from the moat, rather than identical to it.
The power of just looking things up, which we can do so easily now...
Rabbit-hole alert: Motte is from Old French meaning "mound," clearly related to Germanic and Celtic words for the same, with extended meanings of mud/dirt/peat and perhaps even originally Proto-Uralic, as it shows up in Finnish and Saami "mud" as well. The mounds to be defended were often artificial, with a circle dug around them and the soil thrown into the center. The low-lying areas would collect water, which would be an especial barrier for horses.
This is similar to the etymologies of ditch and dike. Dich once referred to the type of barrier in which a long trench of dirt* was dug and piled along the side. It was a single item originally, but turned into a doublet, with dike referring to the upper part and ditch the lower in different regions. See also Proto-Germanic skurtij meaning apron, tunic, which became both shirt and skirt.
*Unrelated etymology, even though it looks similar.
1 comment:
Gemini agrees bailey is the outer wall so it would almost make more sense to say 'bailey-and-motte argument' in the sense of falling back to the stronger place. I wondered if bailey was related to bailiwick but it appears they come from different Old French words.
Post a Comment