Regardless vs. Irregardless

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how are you doing?

Doing well. Who’s this?

My name is Rakuzo. I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.

Rakuzo? Rakuzo?

Yes, actually, yes, that’s Southern African. I’m from Zimbabwe.

And you pronounced it right.

Oh, did I? I love it. Rakuzo.

Oh, yeah, it means respect. And I hope I’ll show some respect on the show.

Well, I hope so, too. What’s on your mind?

Well, I’m a student of the Romantic period, and I love the King James English.

Both my wife and I were trained in the British literature and all that.

So we have one word that irks us a lot, and we’re trying to find the origin of that word, and this word is irregardless.

Oh, yeah.

I’m sure a lot of people actually really want to know if it’s a word which we think it’s not, so I don’t know if you can help me with that.

Irregardless.

And does it make you want to run to the nearest blackboard and run your fingers down?

There you have it.

That’s how I feel.

Where’s the way we can ban this word?

Is there a way we can ban it?

Oh, yeah.

Well, if you start banning words before you know it, you’re banning punctuation, and then where will we be?

Okay.

Irregardless.

That is such a loaded word.

It’s a skunked word, right, Martha?

It’s probably the word that gets under more people’s skin than anything else I can think of.

And by a skunked word, we mean that this is a word that is so heavily debated and so disliked by so many people,

And yet so commonly used, that if you can avoid it, you should.

Because whether or not it’s a word has nothing to do with it.

It’s just that there are a lot of people that dislike this word.

Yeah, I’m glad to hear there’s a lot of us out there.

But on the other hand, it is a word.

Right, Martha?

Well, you’ll find it in just about every dictionary, right?

Yeah.

It’s a word.

It has meaning.

You can spell it.

You can say it.

It fits grammatically and syntactically into English.

But you don’t have to like it, and I don’t.

Yeah, you don’t have to like it, and you don’t have to use it.

Wow.

Wow.

Okay.

Well, I didn’t say I’m too enthused to hear that, but I guess we’ll have to accept it then.

Well, here’s the thing about irregardless.

The better choice is just the word regardless.

Right.

It’s got one too many prefixes.

Exactly.

Just leave off the IR and leave the regardless and you’re fine.

Irregardless does a job that it doesn’t need to do.

And it’s been doing it for a very long time, since at least the 1870s.

Wow.

And it appears in scientific literature and in the speech and the writing of the most educated English speakers ever.

But that doesn’t mean that you have to use it.

Or like it.

Or like it.

I don’t like it.

And you asked where it comes from.

Apparently, it’s just a blend of irrespective and regardless.

It’s just sort of a lazy blend, I guess.

Well, I wouldn’t say lazy.

It’s a blend.

At some point, the word became transmitted on its own.

It’s not like it’s recoined.

Right, right, right.

So people pick it up from each other and don’t think much about it.

It does have meaning, and they use it for that meaning.

But it’s contradictory if you try to break it down because it looks like it should be the opposite of what it means, right?

Exactly. That’s exactly what I thought.

But English is not a logical language, as you well know.

You don’t think we can vote it off the island?

Oh, no, we cannot vote it out of the Lexus.

Maybe you should try. Call us with your votes.

I’m with you, Martha.

All right.

Well, thanks a lot, guys, for having me on the show.

Our pleasure. Thanks for calling.

Okay. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

What gets under your skin?

Anytime we talk about peeves on the show, the floodgates open.

877-929-9673 or email us, words@waywordradio.org.