Timeline for Isn't the word "uninstall" wrong?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
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| Jul 14, 2015 at 12:45 | comment | added | Jonathan Komar | @PeterShor Perhaps deinstall is another option? | |
| Dec 16, 2013 at 22:58 | history | edited | RegDwigнt | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 8, 2011 at 11:59 | comment | added | Colin Fine | I don't agree. You're right about the origins of "disinfect", but I'm talking about how the word is used today. I certainly disagree about "disinherit": first, there is no "inherit" which is being undone, and second nobody needs to be "named an heir" in order to be disinherited - they just need to be an heir. I'm happy to believe in "disinvite" - I've just never encountered it before. | |
| Mar 7, 2011 at 16:42 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Colin: disinherit, disinter, disinvite and disinfect all share the idea that something has been done and then undone. For disinherit, that thing is not inheriting, but being named an heir. And for disinfect, the original meaning (which can be verified by searching Google books) was cleansing objects that had been exposed to patients with a contagious disease. I have indeed met disinvite, and it's also in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, while uninvite is not. I see through Google, though, that uninvite is also commonly used in the same sense (i.e. withdraw an invitation from). | |
| Mar 7, 2011 at 15:33 | comment | added | Colin Fine | Actually, not all your examples work. "Disinherit" is in no sense a converse of "inherit"; "disinfect" is as likely to be used for preventing infection as removing it; and I don't recall ever having met "disinvite". But you're right that "uninstall" is historically unlikely: until recently almost all verbs in "un-" were about wrapping, enclosing, fastening. | |
| Mar 6, 2011 at 5:58 | comment | added | Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин | Funny but in Russian it is "desinfect". Why is it? | |
| Mar 4, 2011 at 22:33 | history | edited | Peter Shor | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
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| Mar 4, 2011 at 22:21 | history | answered | Peter Shor | CC BY-SA 2.5 |