Ya Webster's Dictionary blew their credibility when they added "irregardless" to their dictionary - hard pass
Yeah, "irregardless" isn't a word, and if it is, it could only mean "without a LACK of regard".
@mcfate Yup I answwered over on the bird site
ir is a prefix meaning "not", regardless is a word that means without regard. Adding the "ir" prefix to regardless makes it a double negative so if used it means not regardless, that is having regard.
@NorthernInvader @mcfate Ain't nothing wrong with double negatives!
But if we're going to fix prefix problems in English, I suggest we start with "flammable" and "inflammable." They should be antonyms, not synonyms.
Give 'em Newton's Principia or Euclid's Elements instead.
@NorthernInvader Um … language is a living thing. Common usage today trumps what might have been considered correct usage in the past. If enough people today are using the word for a given meaning, it belongs in a dictionary. Sorry, but if language didn’t evolve according to usage we’d still be speaking English like Shakespeare or even pre-Chaucer.
@REDonaldAuthor can't agree. It's a sign of a poor education.
@REDonaldAuthor @NorthernInvader linguistic prescriptivism is a different form of political conservatism, and in the end judging someone for using neologisms will always happen.
I am about as far from being a political (or any other kind) of conservative you could possibly imagine. I am however a graduate in english lit and had I ever used that in a paper it would have lowered my grade considerably and likely a talking to from my prof or TA.
We'll have to agree to disagree
@NorthernInvader @REDonaldAuthor true. My autistic hyperfixation on linguistics is just that. My respect to you.
@NorthernInvader @ChumCugger I was a student of creative writing as well as linguistics at UBC. I wouldn’t use “irregardless” myself, but people have been using it for over 200 years so … 🤷♀️
The convention follows a pattern; irreplaceable, irrespective, irreconcilable. The “ir-“ prefix negates the root word meaning.
My conclusion is “irregardless” negates the root “regardless”. Since most people use “irregardless” to mean “regardless”, it’s improper. To me it also *sounds* improper and clumsy and I was always taught to write/speak clearly, properly and simply.
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