This week’s theme
Usage examples that are food for thought

This week’s words
approbation
promontory
exigency
construe
disinterested

This week’s comments
AWADmail 967

Next week’s theme
Words with variant spellings

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(dis-IN-truh-stuhd, dis-IN-tuh-res-tid)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Free of bias or self-interest; impartial.
2. Indifferent or not interested.
3. No longer interested.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin dis- (apart, away) + interesse (to be in between), from inter- (between) + esse (to be). Earliest documented use: 1631.

NOTES:

Some people, defending the purity of language, would insist that: If you come across someone using the word disinterested to mean not interested, don’t let it bother you too much. That’s what the word originally meant. And the word uninterested meant impartial. Over time the usage flipped, but the original meaning of the word disinterested is still not uncommon.
As long as the meaning is clear from the context, take a long deep breath. The English language is just fine, thank you, and doesn’t need its honor defended.

USAGE:

“The force which makes for war does not derive its strength from the interested motives of evil men; it derives its strength from the disinterested motives of good men.”
Norman Angell; Peace and the Public Mind (Nobel lecture); Jun 12, 1935.

See more usage examples of disinterested in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: