Apparently, irregardless is now entering the dictionary.

I hate this word.

I hate when people use this word.

I hate it because it’s not a word.

It contradicts itself.

I once ruled out a candidate who was interviewing to be my assistant because she used this word on the interview.

So why is it now going to appear in dictionaries?

I don’t know…

I was told a few months ago that I focus too much on words…

But words are important to me. There is power in words. The right words can make you fall in love. The wrong ones can destroy your soul.

Who decides what the right words are? Who decides what the wrong ones are?

The term Master Bedroom is on the way out…

How do we feel about irregardless being in, and master bedroom being out?

If we are going to get rid of words/phrases, I’d much rather get rid of “it’s not you, it’s me”…To me, that’s a phrase that’s ridiculous. But maybe I just don’t like things that contradict themselves…

So what words/phrases would you add if you could?

What words/phrases would you get rid of? (remember- this is words/phrases- not concepts. I’d like to get rid of hate, but just like judging and lying- the concepts will always exist)

Do words matter? Do some words matter more than others?

Is it the words themselves, or is it how the sentence is formed?

Give me a few words on words…

 

 

129 thoughts on “Irregardless”

  2. I heard Kim say this word one day when I flicked around the tv and ended up on that Kardashian show. I remember thinking, this isn’t a word…But she IS an influencer. Right?

    I kept watching for a bit and then she said ‘disinvite’. Isn’t it uninvite?

    Anyway. Yup. I’m annoyed too. 😛

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  3. Words are powerful. There is a verse from proverbs (I think) that puts it like this…”Life and death are in the power of the tongue.” I try to be mindful of that whenever I’m in a situation where I just want to let someone have it.

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  4. Hey LA, let’s take a “pitcher” of that beautiful mountain in the distance! Sure Deb, that would make a great “pitcher” for IG! Former husband could not distinguish between picture and pitcher. As you can see, I still hold resentment for this grievous mistake. 🙂

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    1. Just the title irritates me….on a side note, my husband has a co worker whose daughter goes to “Ruggers” ….when she says it it drives him crazy

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    2. I find sometimes phrases or mispronounced words are irritating because of who said them, not necessarily the phrase or mispronunciations themselves. I mean, mispronounced words from my children were clever and adorable! 😊

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      1. That’s different when you’re learning the language or can’t pronounce things. My daughter used to say DVDeos as a combo of dvd and video….don’t want it in the dictionary though….

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  7. Sometimes I am afraid to use the wrong pronoun. One time I didn’t get that the she I addressed was a he which didn’t make me too popular. I think I was called “weird” which to that generation might have been code for “old.”

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  9. Oh, words do matter. I am tired of every mediocre thing being Awesome (Ossum, Awsum make my skin crawl), of being told they are Disinterested when they mean Uninterested, of being assured No issues, because Anyways it doesn’t matter. Then there’s the Shit which runs the range from Holy to Coffee ( this coffee is the real shit). Whaaaaat???

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  10. Why oh why is this nonword being added to the dictionary!?! Urban dictionary, perhaps, but the legit dictionary?
    I felt the same way when the definition of literally was changed to include a figurative definition.
    WTF, y’all!?
    I understand language evolves and adapts, but does that warrant official change of definition?
    Like you, LA, I’m a word person. And a pretty uppity one at that. I find no acceptable excuse and I’m going to sit here and be petulant af about it! 😉

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    1. I just stared at the screen when I heard this….and literally…to change the definition….absurd….let’s just start saying any word that comes out to mean anything we want

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  11. I dislike the term influencer.
    I like the concept of tone deaf(not as in music, but more about not being able to feel the mood of the room), but I would like a better phrase to replace it.
    There are other words/phrases I don’t like, but they have escaped my mind for the moment.

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  12. Words means a lot to me. The older I get the more important they are. I hate stupid words. I remember this from high school. Ain’t ain’t a word and you ain’t suppose to use it. Why would you make up a sentence for a word you’re not suppose to use?

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  13. I was appalled to hear that irregardless has been granted word status. And I dislike lazy expressions, such as “at the end of the day” and “whatnot.” Also, I must have been paying attention elsewhere when the word “gift” was deemed to be a verb. “I’m gifting her my necklace,” or “They gifted them the good china.” What happened to “giving” and “gave”? I suppose these are small complaints in a world gone mad, but they are nonetheless annoyances … like a pebble in your shoe that drives you crazy.

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    1. Are they small though? Once we start changing meanings arbitrarily, we begin to loose communication with one another. In order to be a part of a community, we have to have a basic understanding of what is being said. If we start to manipulate language, we regress. That’s not what I meant should also become an obsolete phrase….

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      1. While I resist a lot of changes to the language, I don’t really see it as “manipulating” language or as arbitrary, but rather that language and even words evolve as cultures evolve. I may not like it, but that’s not where I’ll put my energy in a year when everything is at stake.

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      2. I think to make irregardless a word is manipulation. It’s letting the masses dictate words, like Robyn saying that they’ve changed the definition of the word literal. I totally get adding new words because new things do exist, and there is a matter of cultural lexicon. But to change meanings of other words is not a path we should be going down. How can we expect children to ascertain meaning from books if there’s no reliable guideline to meaning of words? Do we need to footnote texts prior to 2017 to show that literal had a different meaning then? Evolving is one thing. Changing another

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  14. I can’t think of a time in the last several years where any business conversation (bank, phone company, electric company, amazon, etc., etc.) didn’t end with my saying “Thank you” and being answered with “No Problem”. There was NEVER a problem for you! But there may have been a BIG problem for me or I wouldn’t have called! I’m always tempted to explain why that phrase irritates me, but then I’d have to say ‘thank you’ again and they would say again – ‘no problem’.
    Oh, that’s another one – whatever happened to the words he/she/it ‘said’ or ‘says’? Now these same people (and even people to my face) say “he/she/it goes…”. For example – ‘I was talking to my girlfriend and she goes “my shoes don’t fit”.’ Goes is NOT the right word to use. Who started that?!?!? Speaking is not the same thing as going/moving! Grrr.

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  16. Please tell me you are joking! This is one of the words at the top of my most disliked list. I used to know someone that used it constantly and it drove me up a wall.

    I love the fact that language is somewhat fluid and adapts to current uses, mostly because I love to see how those words evolved into how we use them today. I also get a huge kick out of making things literal. It is kind of a family thing around here. You can rarely have any string of words come out of your mouth without someone turning it into something completely different, usually getting groans or laughs depending on how bad and dad joke like it ended up.

    Pretty sure this attitude makes it difficult for me to be too particular about or bothered by most words, but use of the word irregardless is grounds for prison time as far as I’m concerned.

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    1. Not joking. Ok…here’s my thing. I’m all for adding things to language. I even think we should relax some of the grammar rules (who/whom) but once you start changing things because people are lazy…then I’m out. Irregardless doesn’t make sense…why pander to the masses. And Robyn said they’ve changed the definition of literal. I mean, there’s a word for it, figurative….I mean this is just lazyness

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  17. OMG yes!! You are not alone! Anyways is one that infuriates me too. I don’t have any particular feelings about Master Bedroom but irregardless is just shameful. “My bad” infuriates my husband. He doesn’t believe that’s an apology for anything.

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  18. I’d heard that master bedroom was a slavery related term recently, and that is why it is on the way out.
    I saw it on a list of expressions that were considered inappropriate because of their ties to slavery. Wish I could remember where I saw it.

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    1. But…I researched it. The term master bedroom didn’t come into existence until the early 1900s. It’s the term master that’s in question.

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    2. It seems to me that it was because when people were richer centuries ago (in England i.e.) the Master of the house had a separate bedroom from the wife’s bedroom, so he could come and go as he pleased.

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  19. I’m over political correctness. It seems that you can find someone who is offended by any word out there. “Irregardless, I don’t think master bedroom is offensive.”😜 Seriously, I see your point about terms that don’t make sense, and I don’t think a word should be a word just because people have misused it repeatedly. On the other hand, as a word lover, I enjoy looking back to see what older terms that we longer use actually mean.

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    1. I’m reading this British home life novel, The light Years,and I find I’m constantly looking up what things were, so I do find that fascinating. And I get words go in and out if fashion. But yes….it’s the stupid ones that irk me

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  20. Irregardless of what you think, the OED has deemed it a word. (SARCASM!)
    The truth is, people who’ve been using that word aren’t familiar with the OED.
    I agree words matter. Sometimes phrases or words that are not to your liking are regionalisms or cultural and my preference on those is to “assume good intentions” and not take a superior stance.
    Pondering “master bedroom and master bathroom” and how they should be replaced.

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    1. Owners retreat. Because there’s no connotation of superiority there….will classes given given by divas be changed from masterclass? Or Masterchef change it’s name? And right now those same people are thinking…there’s a book for compulsive people?

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    2. This comment thread makes me actually lol because I’m aware I break (many) grammatical rules….. but since writing a blog the English language has fascinated me, personally listening teenage girls addiction to ‘like’ 😀 is all tooo much! (Sorry for high jacking LA’s posting.)

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  21. Not the biggest fan of irregardless myself. When you break it down the word is like an abandoned storage unit, lots of stuff in there but basically worthless.

    The phrases that I would get rid of? I’ll take two off the top of my head.

    “At the end of the day,”

    “It is what it is,”

    Having re-read Moby Dick recently, I was reunited with a favorite word- Sagacious. Melville knew his business when it came to the written word, tell you what.

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    1. I had a friend who said if his partner ever disappeared it would be because he had used the phrase “it is what it is” one too many times….and yes…love when you discover a perfect word

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      1. I once heard William F. Buckley, Jr. on television say, “I’m perspicacious, but cute”. I immediately had to look the word up (I was too young to know what it meant), and decided that at that tender age, it would be, and has remained, my favorite word of all time.

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  22. Craziness!
    As far as words that I like go, I have used dummkopf a lot lately. LOL! Gotta love the Pa, Dutch words!
    Another blogger did a post about funny words that are real. I have watched Sound of Music hundreds of times but never realized that “flibbertigibbet” is a real word! I thought it was just part of the song. I think I am going to have to use it more now!

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  23. Have a I wandered into a parallel universe? Americans discussing the debasement of modern English?

    The nation that brought us “Can I get a cup of coffee?” doesn’t like Irregardless?

    Pah! And fie! And a murrain on your flocks.

    Anyway, can’t stay chatting all night, I have to go and listen to a recording of American TV presenters saying “mask debates”. For a man with a puerile sense of humour it is a thing of beauty.

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  24. Agree with you. Hate irregardless. Sounds ridiculous and made up (well, it is, really). Hadn’t heard about master bedroom going away. I can guess why. At this moment in time, in the era we’re living, I’d be happy to never hear “woke” or “cancelled” again as it is being used today. Some words I love: slithered, serendipity, and cripes. lol Not really sayings, just words. I do think words matter. We writers would think that, though, right? 😀

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  25. Say it isn’t so! I do not like misuse of a word added to the dictionary. Just muddles everything. Did you catch my new word last weekend – pandemified? I think they should be adding that one to the OED!

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  30. My Dad hated the phrase, “At this point in time.” He had a lot of expressions that bothered him. I think any word that is overused can be grating. A woman on the phone used the word “perfect” at least 15 times as I arranged for my cracked windshield to be replaced. I don’t think I’ve used that word as many times in my lifetime.

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    1. I hear the younger generation in an effort to be polite overuse “Of course!” in business situations. In Buenos Aires, it was “Claro” to show agreement. In politics, we have on both sides of the aisle “Let me be clear about this” and “Make no mistake.”

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  37. Irregardless makes me cringe. How can we go so long being told it’s wrong and then it becomes right? The phrase I hate is “my bad”. I also dislike how people create verbs from nouns. I’m a word/grammar person and all these things irk me.

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  38. Reblogged this on Notes and commented:
    What? I saw your post’s title and came here to correct it to “regardless”. I don’t think it qualifies as a mistake. Its actually an intellectual blunder that these dictionary-moderators are committing. Totally on your side irregardless… oh damnit… regardless of how these stupid dictionary owners/writing teams think.

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  39. I love words too! My friend and I made up a new word a couple of years ago. We felt bad saying “I’m jealous” or “I’m envious” so we created a word that means “I’m so happy for you but I wish I was experiencing the same.” The word is happyeous. In a sentence: When Christi told me she was driving to Texas to see her son, I replied “oh, I’m happyeous.” There are a few words I will be glad to see go one day; like social-distancing.

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