motte
noun/ˈmɒt/
Etymology From French motte, from Anglo-Norman/Old French motte (“mound, hillock”). Doublet of moat.
1
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.2013 September 13, Richard Huscroft, The Norman Conquest: A New Introduction, Routledge, →ISBN:
2
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.2023 February 10, “Why Birds Are Not Dinosaurs (And Why It Matters)”, in Answers in Genesis, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2023:
- Derived terms
- motte and bailey
- Related terms
- moat