The English Language Irregardessly Irregarded

By Cooper Banks

U.S. publisher Merriam-Webster now says the false (and ridiculously redundant) term “irregardless” is now officially a definable word.

Man, I thought I’d seen just about everything in this crazy time, but this is discouraging in a whole different kind of way (chuckling).  The way I understand this literary travesty is that Merriam-Webster basically caved.

So many people use the non-word “irregardless” that the publisher figured it’s best just to acknowledge it as an actual word.

Merrian-Webster has defined the word ‘irregardless’, saying it is the same as ‘regardless’ and is used in non-standard English.

I suppose it’s consolation enough for me to see this storied publisher at least acknowledge that term as “non-standard”.

It’s worth noting, however, Merriam-Webster is not the first to define “irregardless”.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, 2018; The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1976; and Cambridge Dictionary, 2018; have also defined the word.

At all rates have to love the recent exchange about it on Twitter, though.

Yep. English is literally dead. https://t.co/hGVXeSNDV7

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) July 1, 2020

Merriam-Webster tweeted that the English language is now “literally dead”.  Ha!  Good one Merriam-Webster.