Irregardless - Raleigh, NC (Photo credit: hyku)
When I saw the word irregardless written in The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, I was drawn to what it said beside it, which was “it should be regardless”. They explain that people have a desire to add in a prefix to make a word negative; however, by adding ‘ir-‘ to regardless, it leaves it with a double negative meaning. Words where it is safe to do this are irrespective and irresponsible as they don’t have a negative suffix at the end.
Although the origin of the word is uncertain, Wikipedia say that “irregardless is an informal term commonly used in place of regardless or irrespective which has caused controversy since it first appeared in the early twentieth century”.
Even though the word irregardless has now been added to some dictionaries, namely Merriam-Webster, American Heritage Dictionaries and Oxford English Dictionaries, it is a non-standard word which should be used with caution, explain Quick and Dirty Tips.com (Grammar Girl). In their article called ‘Irregardless Versus Regardless’ they also say how language experts believe irregardless has been formed from the words regardless and irrespective.
So, do you write regardless or irregardless?
Until tomorrow…
Sandra
www.sandramadeira.com
Photo credit: hyku Flickr
My Writing Notebook 
Sandra,
I cringe when educated, well-positioned people use the non-word irregardless. It is a literary bastard hybrid of regardless and irrespective. When it is used, it tells me that the speaker or writer isn’t as smart as he or she thinks.
All the best,
Bruce
Posted by Bruce Stambaugh | March 24, 2012, 10:51 pmI can see that you feel quite strongly about this. Thanks for taking the time to comment Bruce. Hope you are having a great weekend.
Sandra
Posted by Sandra Madeira | March 24, 2012, 10:56 pmTo me an even better reason for not writing “irregardless” is that it would make me sound ignorant–that is, if I used it!.
I don’t really agree with dictionaries that bend too quickly in the direction of accepting colloquialism as standard
English.
Posted by Bill99 (@Bill99) | March 24, 2012, 10:52 pmI can’t see any reason to use it either. It makes you wonder who allows these sort of words to go into the dictionaries! Thanks for the comment Bill. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.
Sandra
Posted by Sandra Madeira | March 24, 2012, 10:59 pmI don’t agree with the use of the word but since majority rules, the dictionary accepts it as a word. they have a majority use rule where if it is found in a certain amount of written text it is considered a word. Can you remember back when “ain’t” was NOT a word.
Posted by MercXue | March 24, 2012, 11:30 pmInteresting point. I shall be looking out for irregardless in written text from now on (and also ain’t). Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Sandra
Posted by Sandra Madeira | March 25, 2012, 6:37 pm