when incorrect use becomes correct?

metrovelvet · 24-03-2010 09:43AM #1

I've noticed over the past few years that there is an increasing use of the word "disinterest" or "disinterested." However, it is misused so often to mean uninterested, rather than it's correct meaning that I now don't know what it means anymore or how it should be used. Has the incorrect meaning now replaced the correct one?

pickarooney · 24-03-2010 01:54PM

It's a bit self-fulfilling in that some dictionaries, notably dictionary.com will accommodate actual usage and not just continue to prescribe original usages the way other reference books might. The listing of the 'new' meaning in a dictionary then validates it as 'correct' for most people.

I'd hazard a guess that most people today would not interpret 'dinsinterest' as 'not having a vested interest in'.

The incorrect use of "it's" will never become the correct one, though, hopefully.

Permabear · 24-03-2010 03:34PM

This post has been deleted.

pickarooney · 24-03-2010 06:20PM

So you'd go so far as to say that definition 2. here is flat out wrong?

Words take on new meanings and lose old ones all the time. Often, where we draw the line between what is incorrect, non-standard and alternative is quite arbitrary.

when incorrect use becomes correct?

Comments