Four of the five definitions are of a *group* of people (#1, #3, and #5, I take it, really are variations of the original Roman meaning, #4).

I've always wondered how we got from a clear group definition to the singular definition #2: companion; associate. And that's the one we hear most often: 'John is my cohort.'

old maltese,

Perhaps they mean to say "consort", then stop themselves because it suggests something seedy and immoral?

Need I add that to see "cohort" used for a person gives me ingrown toenails.

English as she is spoke. What can you expect when "I could care less" is becoming accepted as proper usage -- and a vastly overrated linguist concurs.

The biggest problem with sloppy language is that it encourages sloppy thinking. Linguistic usage can change over time, but when people fail to verbally make distinctions their language supports, they tend to fail to make those distinctions in their thinking as well.

Don't get me started on "10 items or less" ....

Does anyone here still carry a torch for "disinterested" as meaning impartial and not uninterested, or is it time for me to give up?

Me, Peter. Though I've almost given up on lie v. lay.

Kudos to rkb. Well said.

If you decimate a legion, you lose a cohort.

Decmate? Wasn't there a desktop computer by Digitial Equipment Corp. (DEC) with that name back in the 1980s?

Peter B.: In law, "Disinterested" is heavily used in its correct sense, particualarly in areas such as corporate and trust law when describing the legal standard for certain actions by fiduciaries such as trustees or a board of directors.

As for "cohort", on graduating law school, my fellow students and I received letters advising us of our class rank by stating that we were "number (X) in a cohort of 265."

Peter B. -

I'm right there with you on disinterested. Another one that grates upon me is fulsome, which is a pejorative term when used correctly.

Eugene S, you just don't do irony, is that it?

Bruce/Harry:

Good for you. My hope is that when my time is up, the family will inscribe "Here our beloved Dad doth lie, struck down defending infer/imply." on my headstone. Also to be drawn and quartered are the growing number who think inflammable means nonflammable and flounder means founder.

Many who flounder eventually founder, so the confusion is understandable.

Does anyone here still carry a torch for "disinterested" as meaning impartial and not uninterested, or is it time for me to give up?

Peter B, if we can divorce the adjective from its ugly spouse "observer", then count me in. (I see that Twn notes that "disinterested" is alive and well in the legal domain.)

Kirk Parker, if you mean do I buy Pinker's defense of "I could care less" as "irony", then the answer is, no, I don't buy it.

I could care fewer.