moat

Signification (Anglais)

Noun

1. A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation.
2. (figuratively) An aspect of a business which makes it more "defensible" from competitors, because of the nature of its products, services or franchise or for some other reason.
3. A circular lowland between a resurgent dome and the walls of the caldera surrounding it.
4. A clear ring outside the eyewall of a tropical cyclone.
5. (obsolete) A hill or mound.

Verb

To surround with a moat.

Concepts

fossé

douve

douves

fossés

canal

tranchée

Douve

Synonymes

ditch

trench

fosse

canal

pit

gutter

irrigation canal

channel

sea moat

cavity

gully

small canal

overflow

groove

sink

dike

watercourse

waterway

chasm

hole

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Traductions

fossato

foso

Graben

fosso

Burggraben

Stadtgraben

fosso

gracht

fossa

τάφρος

Wallgraben

fossat

slotgracht

Festungsgraben

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/məʊt/

Étymologie (Anglais)

Hérité de moyen anglais: mote

Appartenant à ancien français: motte

Appartenant à suisse allemand: Mott

Appartenant à bavarois: Mott

Appartenant à néerlandais: mot

Appartenant à saterlandais: mut

Appartenant à suédois: muta

Appartenant à ancien anglais: mot

In summary

From Middle English mote, from Old French mote (“mound, embankment”); compare also Old French motte (“hillock, lump, clod, turf”), from Medieval Latin mota (“a mound, hill”), of Germanic origin, perhaps via Frankish *mot, *motta (“mud, peat, bog, turf”), from Proto-Germanic *mutô, *mudraz, *muþraz (“dirt, filth, mud, swamp”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mut- (“dark, dirty”).
Cognate with Alemannic German Mott, Mutte (“peat, turf”), Bavarian Mott (“peat, turf”), dialectal Dutch mot (“dust, fine sand”), Saterland Frisian mut (“grit, litter, humus”), Swedish muta (“to drizzle”), Old English mot (“speck, particle”). More at mote, mud, smut.
As term for a business strategy, popularized by American investor Warren Buffett.