The Securities and Exchange Commission recently proposed amendments that would purportedly "update certain substantive bases for exclusion of shareholder proposals" under its shareholder proposal rule, Rule 14a-8. Before 1983, Rule 14a-8(i)(10) permitted exclusion of a shareholder proposal when "the proposal has been rendered moot". This set me to thinking about the oddly inconsistent meanings of the word "moot".
The word is derived from the Old English word, gemot, which means an assembly or gathering. Thus, the king's council was known in Anglo Saxon times as...