“As most people know by now, dictionary makers today merely record how the language is used, not how the language ought to be used. That is, lexicographers are descriptivists, language liberals. People using “disinterested” when they mean “uninterested” does not displease a descriptivist. | A prescriptivist, by contrast, is a language conservative, a person interested in maintaining standards and correctness in language use. To prescriptivists, “disinterested” in the sense of “uninterested” is the result of uneducated people not knowing the distinction between the two words. And if there are enough uneducated people saying “disinterested” (and I’m afraid there are) when they mean “uninterested” or “indifferent,” lexicographers enter the definition into their dictionaries. Indeed, the distinction between these words has all but vanished owing largely to irresponsible writers and boneless lexicographers.” Robert Hartwell Fiske —Don’t Look It Up: The Decline of the Dictionary (The Weekly Standard)
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This essay of Fiske's always amuses me, and serves as a humorous reminder that to be a linguist, one needs to study and understand language; to be a grammarian, one simply needs to understand how to belittle someone else. I haven't found a grammarian yet who knows a thing about language.