In today’s usage, indifferent usually means “unbiased”, while not interested simply means “don’t care.” Interestingly, when these words were first introduced, their meanings were reversed, with indifferent originally meant “lack of interest,” and not interested means “unbiased.”
When the control panel used for the 1985 version of Harper’s Dictionary of Contemporary Usage were asked whether they chose to differentiate between indifferent And not interested, they responded with amusement. Isaac Asimov stated “I take great pride in knowing the difference and insisting on it, freely correcting others.” Not to be outdone, Anthony Burgess declared that “This is one of the worst of all American monopolies and it makes me boil.”
Today, ‘don’t care’ means ‘don’t care’. But it was first used to mean “unbiased”—and ‘disinterested’ was first used to mean “uninterested”.
There are a number of fiercely committed individuals who are deeply interested in maintaining the distinction between indifferent And not interested. These To be two separate words, but if there is confusion about them, it exists for good reason: each word begins with the opposite meaning it has today.
Original Meaning of Don’t Care and Don’t Care
According to our quote files, indifferent most commonly used to mean “unbiased; free from selfish motives,” while not interested often used to mean “don’t care.” However, when these words enter the language, not interested means “unbiased; without selfish motives” and indifferent means “don’t care.”
The earliest record we have of not interested is from 1629, where it was used to mean “unbiased”:
‘Tis true Moramante, I come to discover the secrets of Love but to believe rather than to doubt: and here I have found a Mentor who is very indifferent, for he asks nothing but words to please him; and he answered me very appropriately, as if he had researched my cause before. Walter Montagu, Shepherd’s paradise1629
Meanwhile, the first known use of indifferentin 1612, showing that the word was used to mean “uninterested.” Oxford English Dictionary cites John Donne’s use of the word in this way in the early 1630s: “If there are circumstances in which the party does not care, and only or mainly the glory of God is respected and exalted, it [suicide] may be legal.”
The word is unlikely to have the same meaning as it does today in a few decades, at that time both dis And not interested have been used interchangeably for some time. A French-English dictionary from 1684 translated the word Desperado like both indifferent And not interested. Samuel Johnson recognized both the “lack of prejudice” and “disinterested” meanings of indifferent 1755; In 1828, Noah Webster did the same thing. Webster added that indifferent “more commonly used not interested,” which is still true—and this might explain why it’s often used in not interestedplace of.
Today’s Meaning and Difference
The two words’ tangled history doesn’t mean they didn’t grow together to the point of being semantically indistinguishable; there is a difference between them. However, while indifferent can often be used in the sense of “lack of prejudice” or “lack of care,” not interested found pretty much the only meaning and stuck with it. You are unlikely to encounter not interested used to mean “lack of bias.”
For those who like to claim that our language is in a state of permanent decay, and today’s kids don’t care the difference between indifferent And not interested—well, the printed record shows that there is still an observable difference between the two words. A difference that does not reflect their original meaning.
It took us about 400 years, but we have finally distinguished the two words.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
