I subscribe to the substack of Eric Zorn, former Chicago Tribune columnist.
In today's issue, one of the items was a language criticism of a recent Chicago Tribune editorial:
the Editorial Board seems either not to know or not to care that “disinterested” is not a synonym for “uninterested,” which is plainly the concept they were going for.
An uninterested person is bored, unconcerned, or indifferent; and a disinterested person is impartial, unbiased, or has no stake in the outcome.
You want the referee of your game to be disinterested. You don’t want the referee to have a bet on the game. As another example, if you’re on trial, you want a disinterested judge.
Here’s how to use these words according to the traditional rules:
Squiggly was uninterested in the Super Bowl. Instead, he was looking forward to the Puppy Bowl.
The ex-wife can hardly be considered a disinterested party in the estate sale.
