disinterested adj.

1610s, "unconcerned" (the sense that now would go with uninterested), from dis- "opposite of" + interested. The sense of "impartial" originally was in disinteressed (c. 1600), from Old French desinteresse, and subsequently passed to uninterested. The modern sense of disinterested, "impartial, free from self-interest or personal bias, acting from unselfish motives," is attested by 1650s.

By late 18c. the words had sorted themselves out, and as things now stand, disinterested means "impartial," uninterested means "caring nothing for the matter in question," and disinteressed has fallen by the wayside. Related: Disinterestedly; disinterestedness.

Disinterested and uninterested are sometimes confounded in speech, though rarely in writing. A disinterested person takes part in or concerns himself about the affairs of others without regard to self interest, or to any personal benefit to be gained by his action; an uninterested one takes no interest in or is indifferent to the matter under consideration .... [Century Dictionary]

词汇	disinterested
词源	disinterested adj. 1610s, "unconcerned" (the sense that now would go with uninterested), from dis- "opposite of" + interested. The sense of "impartial" originally was in disinteressed (c. 1600), from Old French desinteresse, and subsequently passed to uninterested. The modern sense of disinterested, "impartial, free from self-interest or personal bias, acting from unselfish motives," is attested by 1650s. By late 18c. the words had sorted themselves out, and as things now stand, disinterested means "impartial," uninterested means "caring nothing for the matter in question," and disinteressed has fallen by the wayside. Related: Disinterestedly; disinterestedness. Disinterested and uninterested are sometimes confounded in speech, though rarely in writing. A disinterested person takes part in or concerns himself about the affairs of others without regard to self interest, or to any personal benefit to be gained by his action; an uninterested one takes no interest in or is indifferent to the matter under consideration .... [Century Dictionary] Entries linking to disinterested uninterested adj. 1640s, "unbiased," from un- (1) "not" + past participle of interest (v.). It later meant "disinterested" (1660s); sense of "unconcerned, indifferent" is recorded from 1771. This is the correct word for what often is miscalled disinterested. dis- word-forming element of Latin origin meaning 1. "lack of, not" (as in dishonest); 2. "opposite of, do the opposite of" (as in disallow); 3. "apart, away" (as in discard), from Old French des- or directly from Latin dis- "apart, asunder, in a different direction, between," figuratively "not, un-," also "exceedingly, utterly." Assimilated as dif- before -f- and to di- before most voiced consonants. The Latin prefix is from PIE dis- "apart, asunder" (source also of Old English te-, Old Saxon ti-, Old High German ze-, German zer-). The PIE root is a secondary form of dwis- and thus is related to Latin bis "twice" (originally *dvis) and to duo, on notion of "two ways, in twain" (hence "apart, asunder"). In classical Latin, dis- paralleled de- and had much the same meaning, but in Late Latin dis- came to be the favored form and this passed into Old French as des-, the form used for compound words formed in Old French, where it increasingly had a privative sense ("not"). In English, many of these words eventually were altered back to dis-, while in French many have been altered back to de-. The usual confusion prevails. As a living prefix in English, it reverses or negatives what it is affixed to. Sometimes, as in Italian, it is reduced to s- (as in spend, splay, sport, sdain for disdain, and the surnames Spencer and Spence). interested adj. 1660s, "characterized by concern or sympathy," past-participle adjective from interest (v.). From 1828 as "having an interest or stake (in something);" sense "motivated by self-interest" (1705) is perhaps a back-formation from disinterested. Related: Interestedness. updated on August 29, 2018
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disinterested adj.

Entries linking to disinterested