disinterested

adjective

1)

disinterested advice

Syn:

unbiased, unprejudiced, impartial, neutral, nonpartisan, detached, uninvolved, objective, dispassionate, impersonal, clinical; open-minded, fair, just, equitable, balanced, evenhanded, with no ax to grind

2)

he looked at her with disinterested eyes

Syn:

uninterested, indifferent, incurious, uncurious, unconcerned, unmoved, unresponsive, impassive, passive, detached, unenthusiastic, lukewarm, bored, apathetic; informal couldn't-care-less

••

disinterested, uninterested

Disinterest = (1) impartiality or freedom from bias or from chance of financial benefit; or (2) lack of concern or attention. Leading writers and editors almost unanimously reject sense 2, for which uninterest is the better term. Given the overlapping nouns, writers have found it difficult to keep the past-participial adjectives entirely separate, and many have given up the fight to preserve the distinction between them. But the distinction is still best recognized and followed because disinterested captures a nuance that no other word quite does. Many influential writers have urged the preservation of its traditional sense. The typically understated A. R. Orage rhapsodized over the word: "No word in the English language is more difficult [than disinterestedness] to define or better worth attempting to define. Somewhere or other in its capacious folds it contains all the ideas of ethics and even, I should say, of religion … . I venture to say that whoever has understood the meaning of ‘disinterestedness’ is not far off understanding the goal of human culture." (Readers and Writers: 1917 – 1921; 1922.)

A disinterested observer is not merely "impartial" but has nothing to gain from taking a stand on the issue in question. The illustrative quotation that follows deals with journalists’ disinterest: "In the film, Wexler's directorial debut, a cameraman portrayed by Robert Forster must wrestle with being a disinterested observer or becoming emotionally involved with what he sees through his lens." (Los Angeles Times; Aug. 26, 1996.)

Yet disinterested is frequently used (or, in traditionalists’ eyes, misused) for uninterested — e.g.: "On a day when seeded players fell by the wayside like overripe tomatoes, Agassi looked sickly and almost disinterested [read uninterested]." (Toronto Sun; June 25, 1996.) — BG