yes, its dripping with sarcasm. I realize by some of your posts that you're in the dark on quite a few major areas yet steadfast on your opinions. As I do agree strongly on some it seems you have some gaps to fill when it comes to how the military and press operate. yeah, irregardless is a pet peeve of mine as well and when people say 'jewlery' or 'mischievious'.
From dictionary.com ir·re·gard·less adv. Nonstandard Regardless. [Probably blend of irrespective, and regardless.] Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so. Me: Common usage has made this a conversational word. I think that from an English language standpoint, it is a bastardization, and I tend to abhor such poor diction. But the usage of the words is what makes American English a growing, evolving language.
Thanks for the English lesson. I promise to never use that word again irregardless of the point I may be trying to make!!
"Normalcy" is another non-word, out of "normality." Former President Warren G. Harding used it in a speech, the media didn't want to correct him (as that would be disrespectful--whoa, how far we've come from that idea in less than 100 years), and it became part of the language that way. Just as irregardless did. As an English teacher, I would still tell my students that irregardless isn't a word.
harding didnt make up normalcy: "A fact brought up at that time was that not only was normalcy around since 1857, or before Harding was even born, but the supposedly proper normality was only a few years older, first recorded in 1849. " http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990625
my point is only that it is hard to define words as "non-words". more accurately they are non-standard, or just poorly assembled or bastardized words. since unlike french, english naturally evolves. there is no group or commission that tells us what words are ok. for instance the word "unravel". the word "ravel" means to separate threads, so unravel is a synonym, a misnomer. but nevertheless it is a word. it is only less stupid than irregardless in that less people know the etymology.
