The Wonderful English Language- Words

Well actually, just one word: "Irregardless"

Now this word, has caused so much controversy. Yes, one word, one single, English word. Do me a favour, Open word and type it in there....ok...what happens...nothing right, not red underlines, no green underlines, nothing. Ok, now "shift+F7" it or go to the thesaurus...what happens, same thing, NOTHING...don't you find that quite odd. Its not spelled incorrectly, but neither, the UK nor the US dictionary has a meaning for it. Quite odd, hmmm. This all came to me when i was reading a another blog the other day. As far as i was concerned it is not a real English word, so i thought i would go do some research. Here is what i found:

The "word" appears to be a blend of two words; irrespective and regardless. It is a semi literate and portmanteau word (didn't know what the heck that meant either but apparently its a word that come from the combination of two words...wow you would never imagine, nehoo, i digress).

So what it is: its a word that has been recognized because of its common use. It is in fact a double negative. Regardless means: "in spite of", "despite", "in any case" etc. It is however not officially a grammatically correct English word. It is used in informal settings but is not really acceptable in formal print, "irregardless" of the fact that its is so often used.