Marcia writes: ‘My husband said he offered to take the kids to the footy, but they were “disinterested.” Surely, he should have said “uninterested.” What is your ruling on this?’
For many years I have been insisting that ‘disinterested’ means impartial, unbiased—in the way that a judge is impartial at a trial, having no vested interest in either party, keeping himself quite neutral.
That, I have been saying, is what ‘disinterested’ really means.
To say there is a lack of interest what you should say is ‘uninterested.’
That is the argument that I have been putting up for years.
And the vast majority of educated people have agreed with me on this.
But there is now a fly in that ointment.
I have now learned that when ‘disinterested’ came into English in the 1600s it meant BOTH of those things—both ‘impartial and unbiased’ and also ‘uninterested, unconcerned.’
Over the centuries this distinction gradually eroded, and the word came to have only one meaning—the meaning that I have been defending for years.
But in the 20th century the ‘uninterested’ meaning has been revived.
Educated people still maintain that it is wrong—but given the history of the word, do we need now need to allow this?
The Chambers Dictionary people have written this up in their delightful little book Terms to Make You Squirm.
In their entry on ‘disinterest’ they tell the story that I have just told you.
The conclusion they come to is that you are still better to stick to ‘uninterested’ for a lack of interest and ‘disinterested’ for impartial—simply because it’s what literate people now expect.
But that seems to clash with the history of the word.
So, now over you.
What is your ruling? Have I got to stop insisting on restricting ‘disinterested’ to mean impartial?
Do I have to allow that it sometimes means ‘uninterested’?
You are the jury.
What is your ruling?
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