FAO BWOD

"Disinterest" is an answer in the Times Quick Cryptic today, defined as "indifference" ("Indifference of residents, it’s out of order (11)").

The blogger says "Disinterest meaning lack of interest rather than impartiality is in the dictionaries and, of the big three, only Collins has a usage note: 'Many people consider that the use of disinterested to mean not interested is incorrect and that uninterested should be used'."

Contributions from solvers:

"I would like to point out that disinterested and uninterested swap meanings about once every two hundred years, like variable stars with very long periods. So perhaps we’re about due for another era of transition."

"I don’t know about swapping meanings, but the ‘incorrect’ use of disinterested predates the ‘correct’ use. Currently about 20% of instances of the word are ‘incorrect’. (I’ve never come across ‘uninterested’ meaning ‘impartial’.)"

"Re DISINTERESTED, having available two words meaning two distinct things facilitates communication more than erasing the distinction between them. Usage will prevail, of course. Meanwhile, I continue to use them differently."

"I’m no longer irked by disinterested = uninterested as it seems to be common parlance"

"I didn’t overthink DISINTEREST knowing that if I did I’d tie myself in knots with UN vs DIS and quietly predicted it would the centre of some discussion"

"Good to see DISINTEREST used in the sense of indifferent, although I prefer impartial, as a referee should be"

So general sentiment among Times solvers seems to be on your side!

Posted By: Old Git, Jun 27, 11:44:47