muette

Muette is the feminine form of the French adjective muet, meaning mute or unable to speak. In everyday use muette describes a person or animal that cannot produce speech or is silent. It can also appear as a noun in older or literary French to refer to a mute person, though more common terms today are mut, muet, or expressions describing mutism.

Etymology and usage: Muette comes from the Latin mutus, meaning silent or closed. In French, the suffix -ette is a feminine ending that can form adjectives or nouns; muette thus marks the feminine form of the trait “mute.”

Toponymy and places: La Muette is a toponym found in France, most notably as a neighborhood name in Paris. The toponym historically relates to a separate building or pavilion associated with the area, and the name has remained in use as part of local geography. The term also appears in other French-speaking locales as part of street or district names, reflecting historical associations with quiet or seclusion.

Cultural and linguistic notes: In literature and historical texts, muette can appear to evoke silence or speechlessness in characters or settings. The word is primarily descriptive and bears neutral connotations, though in modern usage it is more common to refer to a mute person with terms like muet or using descriptive phrasing rather than the noun muette.

See also: muet, mutisme.