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#114328 10/24/03 01:16 PM
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Faldage Offline OP
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The word pair disinterested/uninterested is one that sparks some debate in certain circles. As you may be aware, the present day, prescribed definitions are the reverse of what they were several hundred years ago, as a trip to your friendly local OED will confirm (or even AHD4 at http://www.bartleby.com/61/32/D0273200.html). David Carkeet, in his light-hearted TVR article in the September issue (http://www.vocabula.com/2003/VRSept03Carkeet.htm) points out that these words, among others, do not exactly lend themselves to a great stability in meaning. I.e., there is nothing particular about the word disinterested that speaks for it meaning unbiased, impartial as opposed to lacking in interest.

Can anyone think of any other pairs of words that would belong to this dis/un family?


#114329 10/24/03 01:31 PM
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purely as a matter of interest, you understand, this is a many time yart. one of the instances links to the M-W usage gloss.
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=96868


#114330 10/24/03 01:31 PM
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Disinterred would mean dug up. Uninterred would mean not buried. At least that is my impression.


#114331 10/24/03 01:42 PM
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Good one, Dr Bill.

And, tsuwm, the long involved explanation was using dis/uninterested merely as a starting point. Mainly I'm interested in word pairs such as the one offered by Dr Bill. I plead not guilty to any charge of default and yartery.


#114332 10/24/03 04:58 PM
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On a slight tangent check out Trustfulness/trustworthyness in Meta-words south of the line.


#114333 10/24/03 08:21 PM
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Disjointed means that the object was, at one time, connected at the joints, but these are either broken or out of place. Unjointed means that the object had no joints in the first place.



#114334 10/24/03 08:36 PM
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Father Steve's post reminded me of something: the correct term for Siamese twins now is "co-joined" twins. Why not "joined"?


#114335 10/24/03 08:43 PM
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I've only ever seen it as "conjoined" when referring to twins, but the question still holds: What's wrong with plain old "joined?"


#114336 10/24/03 09:27 PM
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What's wrong with plain old "joined?"

Conjoined, to clearly characterise a seamless contiguity. Plain join doesn't do that.


#114337 10/24/03 10:07 PM
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Faldage Offline OP
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Another good one. Thanks, Father.


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