Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DIS-QUAL-I-FI-CA'TION, n. [See Disqualify.]

1. The act of disqualifying; or that which disqualifies; that which renders unfit; unsuitable or inadequate; as, sickness is a disqualification for labor or study.
2. The act of depriving of legal power or capacity; that which renders incapable; that which incapacitates in law; disability. Conviction of a crime is a disqualification for office.
3. Want of qualification. It is used in this sense, though improperly. In strictness, disqualification implies a previous qualification; but careless writers use it for the want of qualification, where no previous qualification is supposed. Thus, I must still retain the consciousness of those disqualifications, which you have been pleased to overlook. – Sir John Shore, Asiat. Res. 4, 175.