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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (3009)	6/23/1999 12:42:00 AM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4711

<<<I find two meanings given for the word disinterest; the first, disinterestedness; and the second -- you guessed it -- lack of interest, indifference.>>> I am wondering if, when you taught, you told your students that 'uninterested' and 'disinterested' meant the same thing! No way. In any case, I shall type the entire entry (that isn't examples) from Volume III, D-E of the OED. 1. Without interest or concern; not interested, unconcerned. ? obs. 2. Not influenced by interest; impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced; now always, Unbiased by personal interest; free from self-seeking. However, either of the two definitions you found in your dictionary seem to me to confirm that you made an error, given your earlier absolute clarity about NOT being unconcerned and lacking in any 'interest'! You are sufficiently concerned to go to the trouble to declare publicly that this genre 'BORES' you, (in caps,) and sufficiently interested to remark, further, that the title "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd" expresses your sentiments exactly, and the genre has always "left [you] cold," and to imply also that this view of yours was appropriate for a 'snob.' A bit too negative re mysteries and committed to that position to qualify as disinterested! So I would say that the two definitions you located, and the two I found in the OED confirm that you made a mistake in your choice of words, and I want you to admit it, gddamit! <g> (I don't enjoy mysteries, either. The only mystery I've ever enjoyed was Conrad's The Secret Agent,* and I was going to bring it up when I saw that Steven had already done it.) [Edit: Ivy Compton-Burnett writes a bizarre sort of 'mystery,' sui generis, and I love her strange works.]