When we're at the grocery store, we see a sign, there's the express lane.
It says 12 items over less.
And people say, this is grammatically wrong.
There is no reason why uninterested should have one set meaning and disinterested should have another.
Coming up on Word Matters,
two words with a complex overlap and a potentially vexatious grocery checkout line.
I'm Emily Brewster and Word Matters is produced by Merriam-Webster in collaboration with New England Public Media.
On each episode, Merriam-Webster editors Neil Servin, Amin Shea,
Peter Sokolowski and I explore some aspect of the English language from the dictionary's vantage point.
If you want to say that you are neutral and unbiased about something,
would you be disinterested or uninterested?
And what if you genuinely care not a whit?
Here's Amon Shea on the messy history of this interesting pair.
Do you find that you have to pause and marshal your resources before deciding whether you're going to use the word uninterested or disinterested?
Do you feel that little frisson of uncertainty or apprehension before using it?
Or do you just not really care?
I have to think about it for a moment.
It's pretty close to automatic, but I always question myself.
There's a slight bump for me.
I have to think about it.