“Unorganized.”
Shouldn’t that be “disorganized”? Or is there a subtle difference I’m missing concerning the prefixes?
It sounds wrong to me, but I’ve encountered it in contexts where I would think the writer/speaker would know better.
What gives?
I’ve only ever heard that used to mean that a work place didn’t have union coverage. An organised workshop is all union but an unorganised one is not.
Merriam-Webster’s Third New International (my big blue unabridged daddy) has both as 100% legitimate adjectives. I won’t type out the definitions here, but the general (albeit weak)distinction seems to be that unorganized = has never been organized, while disorganized = was once organized, but has been thrown into disarray.
This copyeditor has a vague feeling that disorganized has more of a deliberate flavor, whereas unorganized means no one’s gotten around to it yet. But in my regular reading I doubt it would blip on my radar.
My buddies over at Merriam-Webster say Disorganized was once organized, but was disrupted, while Unorganized was never in one sock in the first place. Of course they say it better.
That was my vague feeling, too. I thought the prefixes had those connotations.
I’ll have to listen to find out if the usage I hear is proper, then. It struck me that it wasn’t, which prompted the question in the first place.
Just to chime in with the OED’s take on it: “Unorganized,” meaning “Not formed into an orderly or regulated whole,” dates back to 1836 – though there was a different connotation of the word meaning “Not brought into an organic state” that was around about 150 years prior (and don’t even ask about “unorganizedness”).
Disorganized, in the sense of “Deprived or destitute of organization; having lost, or being without, organic connexion or systematic arrangement; thrown into confusion, disordered,” predates its “un-” synonym by 24 years (1812).
I’d always thought disorganized meant something being out of sorts, while unorganized meant it never was in the first place. But these entries lead me to think otherwise.
Well, on thinking of this, I came up with concrete examples, which always helps me define and remember things.
Disorganized is what you call it when you open a new deck of cards and spray them all over the room.
Unorganized is what you call a coffee can full of random nuts and bolts you’ve collected over the past 25 years.
Works for me.