..and words are all I have to say..bee gee's,1978
Recently, NPR's Morning Edition explored Merriam-Webster's (MW) affirmation of the word, irregardless. It seems inclusion of the word in the latest cyclopedia triggered a social media firestorm and upset some grammarians around the world.
HUH? What's up with that? decided to look into this pseudo calamity and find out what the experts have to say about the ensuing outcry. We also decided to check out some other word oddities.
The definition of the dreaded i word, irregular, is......without without regard.
Grammarian Jim Zoch says, The word has elements of the double negative at the beginning (ir) and at the end (less), a locution that goes back through Chaucer in the Middle Ages and even to the Angle-Saxon period when emphasis was achieved through building up double negatives.
That would seem to support MW's contention that ir- is used as an intensifier in this case.
An MW staff member wrote, The word has been in widespread and constant use since 1795. The article appeared in Words of the Week and went on to say, We do not make the English language, we merely record it.
According to MW, Irregardless is nonstandard, but means the same as regardless.
Mr. Zoch further stated, I always assumed the word was a colloquialism, not to be used in standard, written English.
Author and English teacher, Michelle Ray says, It's not a real word, I don't care what the dictionary says. She adds, Irregardless means not regardless...in what context would that make sense?
MW first printed the word in 1934. Other dictionaries, including, Webster's New World College Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, and the Cambridge Dictionary all recognize irregardless as a word. But, who has the final word?
Once again, we turn to Mr. Zoch. The ultimate authority on the history of such words is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which shows that the word is relatively new to the language, possibly 19th Century American usage.
The Baltimore Sun's John McIntyre wrote, People get upset about the dictionary because they think it is an official document. It's just lexicographers identifying words and trying to find out how they are used, spelled, and their meaning.
Well, the whole debate is useless gibberish, but it's fun. It also brought to mind other words that aren't really words, but we use them as if they are proper words. There are close to one-million words in the English language, so there are bound to be some oops kinds of words. According to an article in Reader's Digest, here are a few of these not real words that appear in the OED.
Prolly has rapidly replaced probably in text messages, but its origin goes back to the 1940s. It's considered a relaxed pronunciation contraction like gotta or gonna, and should only be used informally. Probably right about that.
No English verb that ends in the -eek sound has a past tense ending in -uck, but many of us use snuck instead of sneaked. This one goes back to the 1800s. Random House Dictionary reports, Snuck has been considered non-standard, but it's so widely used by professional writers and educated speakers that it can no longer be so regarded.
Anyways goes back to the 13th century when it was shortened to anyway. Today, it's only used colloquially and is considered superfluous. Most dictionaries list it as an informal synonym for anyway.
Here's an interesting question. How long does it take for a word to be used incorrectly before linguists give up and alter its meaning? It's happening to....literally, which means in a literal way or sense. Speakers and writers are using it in place of virtually. The OED has redefined literally to say it can be used for emphasis rather than being actually true, such as, We were literally killing ourselves laughing.
There are hundreds of such non-real words, and even more real words we've never heard of or pronounced. If you are a logophile, you probably know the following words, but others may not know they exist or their meanings.
Maury Maverick invented the word gobbledygook back in 1944. He was a U.S. politician who was giving a speech to explain a text filled with official language and complicated sentence structure. He threw his hands in the air and proclaimed, This is gobbledygook.
A word that appears on numerous lists of untranslatable words is, Serendipity. But, grammarians agree it refers to a happy or unexpected discovery.
Nudiustertian is not the name of an Armenian friend of yours. It means, Two days ago, or the day before yesterday. Either one works.
New words are introduced to us all the time. Certainly today's technology plays a huge part in our vernacular. As an example, lol is an acronym that has gained legitimacy as a real word and is now in most dictionaries.
You can sort all this out and decide what words you want to use...or not. Don't like it? Great. Don't use it, irregardless.
Coming up in the near future, you will meet a Cheese Master, some Pickleball enthusiasts, some more Encore Performances, and find out more about the new definition of homeschooled.
But, let's get something straight. Instead of, Emma went to the store the day before yesterday, is the dictionary saying it could have been written this way: Emma went to the store nudiustertian.
HUH? What's up with that?
Recently, NPR's Morning Edition explored Merriam-Webster's (MW) affirmation of the word, irregardless. It seems inclusion of the word in the latest cyclopedia triggered a social media firestorm and upset some grammarians around the world.
HUH? What's up with that? decided to look into this pseudo calamity and find out what the experts have to say about the ensuing outcry. We also decided to check out some other word oddities.
The definition of the dreaded i word, irregular, is......without without regard.
Grammarian Jim Zoch says, The word has elements of the double negative at the beginning (ir) and at the end (less), a locution that goes back through Chaucer in the Middle Ages and even to the Angle-Saxon period when emphasis was achieved through building up double negatives.
That would seem to support MW's contention that ir- is used as an intensifier in this case.
An MW staff member wrote, The word has been in widespread and constant use since 1795. The article appeared in Words of the Week and went on to say, We do not make the English language, we merely record it.
According to MW, Irregardless is nonstandard, but means the same as regardless.
Mr. Zoch further stated, I always assumed the word was a colloquialism, not to be used in standard, written English.
MW first printed the word in 1934. Other dictionaries, including, Webster's New World College Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, and the Cambridge Dictionary all recognize irregardless as a word. But, who has the final word?
Once again, we turn to Mr. Zoch. The ultimate authority on the history of such words is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which shows that the word is relatively new to the language, possibly 19th Century American usage.
The Baltimore Sun's John McIntyre wrote, People get upset about the dictionary because they think it is an official document. It's just lexicographers identifying words and trying to find out how they are used, spelled, and their meaning.
Well, the whole debate is useless gibberish, but it's fun. It also brought to mind other words that aren't really words, but we use them as if they are proper words. There are close to one-million words in the English language, so there are bound to be some oops kinds of words. According to an article in Reader's Digest, here are a few of these not real words that appear in the OED.
Prolly has rapidly replaced probably in text messages, but its origin goes back to the 1940s. It's considered a relaxed pronunciation contraction like gotta or gonna, and should only be used informally. Probably right about that.
No English verb that ends in the -eek sound has a past tense ending in -uck, but many of us use snuck instead of sneaked. This one goes back to the 1800s. Random House Dictionary reports, Snuck has been considered non-standard, but it's so widely used by professional writers and educated speakers that it can no longer be so regarded.
Anyways goes back to the 13th century when it was shortened to anyway. Today, it's only used colloquially and is considered superfluous. Most dictionaries list it as an informal synonym for anyway.
Here's an interesting question. How long does it take for a word to be used incorrectly before linguists give up and alter its meaning? It's happening to....literally, which means in a literal way or sense. Speakers and writers are using it in place of virtually. The OED has redefined literally to say it can be used for emphasis rather than being actually true, such as, We were literally killing ourselves laughing.
There are hundreds of such non-real words, and even more real words we've never heard of or pronounced. If you are a logophile, you probably know the following words, but others may not know they exist or their meanings.
Maury Maverick invented the word gobbledygook back in 1944. He was a U.S. politician who was giving a speech to explain a text filled with official language and complicated sentence structure. He threw his hands in the air and proclaimed, This is gobbledygook.
A word that appears on numerous lists of untranslatable words is, Serendipity. But, grammarians agree it refers to a happy or unexpected discovery.
Nudiustertian is not the name of an Armenian friend of yours. It means, Two days ago, or the day before yesterday. Either one works.
New words are introduced to us all the time. Certainly today's technology plays a huge part in our vernacular. As an example, lol is an acronym that has gained legitimacy as a real word and is now in most dictionaries.
You can sort all this out and decide what words you want to use...or not. Don't like it? Great. Don't use it, irregardless.
Coming up in the near future, you will meet a Cheese Master, some Pickleball enthusiasts, some more Encore Performances, and find out more about the new definition of homeschooled.
But, let's get something straight. Instead of, Emma went to the store the day before yesterday, is the dictionary saying it could have been written this way: Emma went to the store nudiustertian.
HUH? What's up with that?
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