Comments on: The noun disconnect

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:58:15 +0000

I have heard “relevancy” a lot lately. Why not just “relevance”?

And maybe it’s just me, but I also hate the word “utilize.” Use, don’t utilize.

By: Karla

Karla — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:09:35 +0000

Sean,

No, the definition you give is of “disconnection” not “disconnect”.

Disconnect as a noun is slang, whether you like it or not.

By: Rory

Rory — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:23:59 +0000

People, in a desperate attempt at sounding hip to the technosphere, picked up on a few mistaken uses of “disconnect” and pounced on it as a trophy or scalping. Use “disconnect” as a noun and you’re so technical now it hurts, literally. Many geeks have no clue how to write!

By: sean

sean — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 03:30:01 +0000

you guys all suck

2disconnect
noun
Definition of DISCONNECT
: a lack of or a break in connection, consistency, or agreement
First Known Use of DISCONNECT
1976

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disconnect)

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:23:11 +0000

Chris, that’s exactly how I ended up here as well. I must hear “disconnect” used this way everyday, and it drives me up a wall. The odd thing is that I can’t remember people using “disconnection,” “disparity,” etc. to this extent before “disconnect” came along.

By: melange

melange — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:53:24 +0000

The prex. of the uni. where I teach told us we need to attend a meeting in which to discuss “the way that the University operationalizes its mission” AARGH!

By: chris

chris — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:30:51 +0000

AMEN.. wth? upon hearing this usage for the umpteenth time, i had to google “disconnect as noun” and found this post. glad i’m not alone on this one. is it so hard to say disconnection? perhaps lacuna? discontinuity? disparity? irregardless of all this, i guess “anything” go’s these day’s. hahahaha

By: zimmer

zimmer — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:13:31 +0000

@ubuntucat.. yes, well it is a long time since the swinging ’60′s and even my 70′s edition of the concise Oxford places it as transitive (but with a poor definition). But my old English master, W G Bebbington MA (Oxon) would get in a right two and eight whenever he heard or read particularly that ‘such and such conceded defeat’. He would clutch his chest and have a mock seizure, then produce a toy cap pistol from his cupboard and proceed to shoot the offending culprit/text. He would then proclaim the verb to be intransitive and that even if it WAS transitive conceding defeat was a totally incorrect use of the verb.
Nothing quite like a British eccentric, eh?

By: themcp

themcp — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:08:35 +0000

arbitrary word dislikes are one of the great joys of being a writer.

how about this one: acclimate or acclimatize? use the former, hate the latter. REDUNDANT. yet both are good usage. it’s just that extra syllable i can’t stand for some reason.

By: Ruth Merkis-Hunt

Ruth Merkis-Hunt — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:19:50 +0000

Hey, does anyone else remember when the word “text” was a noun? Nowadays, my son suggests we communicate through “texting”.

Other words I feel need to be removed from the English language include:
“healthful”
“flavourful”

and go back to saying “healthy” and “tasty”?