Nouning: Disconnect or disconnection?
Posted by: Ivy Wigmore
CIO, verbs and nouns, word choice
Which is correct?
BYOD policies often illustrate a significant ________ between administrators and employees.
a. disconnect
b. disconnection
Answer: b.
Explanation:
The only good reason to use disconnect in this sentence would be to annoy people opposed to nouning (usually, the same ones opposed to verbing).
Grammarist says that disconnect is used in three ways:
The noun disconnect is used (1) to mean an inability to mentally reconcile two or more things, (2) as a synonym of disparity or gap, or (3) simply as a truncated version of disconnection.
I don’t really see any significant distinction between disconnect and disconnection.
The Macmillan Dictionary blog discusses disconnect and other examples of nouning in a blog post, A big ask.
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