■ adjective
1》 not influenced by considerations of personal advantage; impartial.
2》 having or feeling no interest or concern.
Derivatives
~ly adverb
~ness noun
Origin
C17: past participle of the rare verb disinterest 'rid of interest'.
Usage
According to traditional guidelines, ~ should only be used to mean ‘impartial’ and should not be used to mean ‘not interested’ (i.e. as a synonym for uninterested ). In fact, the earliest recorded sense of ~ is for the disputed sense and it is in widespread use today, although it should be avoided in careful writing.