MUTE

In Grammar, a vowel (or consonant) is said to be mute when written but not pronounced; as the vowel e at the end of many English words, in some of which it effects a change in the pronunciation of the preceding vowel, as in wife, life, place, , rendering it long; in others it has no effect, as after a diphthong — house, pronounce.Inold English, the mute e was very generally added at the end of words, especially nouns; and in versification thee often ceased to be mute, as is constantly the case in the poems of Chaucer. Mute, in Law, is said of a person who refuses to plead to an indictment for felony, . By stat. 12 Geo. 3, c. 20, such a person is to be considered as pleading guilty, and to be punished as upon conviction; but formerly a plea was extorted from him by the inhuman and disgusting proce peine forte et dure, which see. Mute. A dumb officer of the Seraglio, whose duty it is to act as executioner of persons of exalted rank who have incurred the grand seignior's displeasure. The term mute is also applied to persons employed by undertakers to stand before the door of a house in which there is a corpse, for a short time previously to the funeral. [s. 820]