Difference between disable/disenable

[Ilka]

Hello,

Please help me clear up an in-house dispute. Which word is correct in
the following sentence, and why?

"Several important functions are disabled/disenabled in the unlicensed
version of the software"

We adhere to US spelling conventions, if that should make a
difference.

Thanks for your help.

Ilka

[Bob Cunningham]

On 19 Jul 2001 02:24:12 -0700, ilka.na...@pruftechnik.com (Ilka)
said:

>Please help me clear up an in-house dispute. Which word is correct in
>the following sentence, and why?

>"Several important functions are disabled/disenabled in the unlicensed
>version of the software"

Dictionaries would lead one to conclude that "disable" and "disenable"
are mere synonyms, but I suspect there's more to it than that: I
would expect "disenable" to have a special meaning -- one that is much
more specific than that of "disable" -- in an environment in which
"enable" has a special meaning.

In a software package that has well-defined operations that enable
features of the software, "disenable" would refer to reversing that
enablement. "Disable" would be more appropriate in a case where
something is originally intrinsically able but has been made not able.

For example, I can enable a screen saver by clicking on an icon. I
can disenable it by clicking somewhere else. A virus can disable my
computer, not disenable it, because the computer was not said to be
"enabled" to begin with. I can become disabled by breaking a leg, but
I wouldn't say that I've become disenabled, because no one would have
said that I had ever been enabled.

But that's only my opinion.

[Franklin Cacciutto]

To "disenable" is to eliminate the potential function altogether, rather
than merely to "disable" it for the nonce.

disable: disenable:: fracture : amputation