Friends don't waste wine when there's words to sell

[venta]

I have just met the word "disambiguate" in some documentation I'm reading (DOM Level 1, if you care).

[Poll #357609]

Yes, I should be concentrating on DOM rather than posting silly polls. Thank you for asking.

Update: It is, of course, a great word. It covers a concept which (in my opinion) isn't covered by any other word, and is nicely euphonious to boot.

I'd now close this poll if I had any idea how to do so :)

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

"Distinguish" seems like a good alternative to "clarify" (again, depending on context). Why should this require the addition of "unambigously" - that is surely implied?

Yes, I was wondering about that. In my mind, there is a difference, but I was having trouble coming up with an example with the "unambiguously" actually added anything.

If Onebyone is correct (http://www.livejournal.com/users/venta/112628.html?thread=1460468#t1460468), then I hadn't fully understood the implications of disambiguate, though, so may have been barking up the wrong tree.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

If Onebyone is correct

Well, I was following "to dispossess" and "to disentangle", but now it occurs to me that "to dissociate" doesn't necessary mean to remove an association, it might mean only to draw a distinction. So I might have to give up on that theory.

In your context it clearly means "to prevent an ambiguity that would otherwise exist" rather than "to remove a pre-existing ambiguity", which is probably fair use figuratively even if the literal meaning were solely the latter, which it might not be.

[venta.livejournal.com]

distinction

Or to remove a tinctionion.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Or any other kind of onion.