means To silence something or someone, or describing a person or sound that produces no audible voice.

from From Latin 'mutus,' meaning silent or dumb — likely an imitative root echoing an inarticulate 'mu' sound, the same instinctive grunt that gave Greek 'mystes' (one sworn to silence) and 'myein' (to close the lips or eyes). It reached English through Old French 'muet' in the medieval period, the final '-t' a French diminutive softening. The musical 'mute' — the little device that hushes a trumpet — and 'to mute' a microphone are later, practical descendants of that same hushed Latin core.