Irregardless Update

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will remember the rant I went on a few months back about people using the "word" irregardless (you know, that word that people use when they mean to say regardless or irrespective, but foolishly combine the two).

See, technically, it might be a word because it is on Dictionary.com. BUT, and this is a huge but, in the definition it says:

Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term.

Now, to me that means that it's NOT a word. The only reason that it's in the freaking dictionary to begin with is because people have misused the word for hundreds of years!

Why am I bringing this up again? Because until Friday I figured I was alone on my irregardless crusade. That is until a caller on Jim Rome (yes, I like Rome, and no I don't care if you don't like him) ended his call by saying that he just got out of a meeting where a co-worker used the word irregardless repeatedly. He proceeded to scream that irregardless IS NOT A WORD (at this point, I was beside myself. Finally, someone agrees with me). Well, that started a twenty minute discussion about the word irregardless. Rome basically concluded that it is a word because it is on dictionary.com. I obviously disagree (aint is on dictionary.com...is that a word?).

I suppose the important thing is not that Rome disagrees, it's that a national audience had to listen to twenty minutes of discussion about the word irregardless. That can only mean good things. If just one person has been influenced to stop using the word, it was worth it.

Just this second I got the idea to start irregardless.com - but it's taken by a freaking cafe called "The Irregardless Cafe." Noooooooo! I've got a lot of work left ahead of me, but mark my word, I will eradicate all use of the word irregardless before I die.

Wow, I just realized my posts have all been pretty critical lately. I promise to lighten it up a bit tomorrow.

PS When I used Blogger's spell checker on this post, it didn't recognize irregardless as a word. HA!