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https://www.npr.org/2020/07/06/887540598/the-debate-over-the-word-irregardless-is-it-a-word
All right. Let's settle something here. The word irregardless - is it a word or is it not a word? Well, this is a debate that Merriam-Webster is now weighing in on in a tweet saying that it is, in fact, a word. And that has led to a whole lot of reaction online.
Merriam-Webster has confirmed that "irregardless" is a word in the dictionary, despite concerns from teachers that it is not.
So fellow Soylentils, irregardless of my opinion, what do your think?
See Also:
Is 'Irregardless' a Real Word?
Definition of irregardless
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The Debate over "Irregardless" -- is it a Word?
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
belief, n:
Something you do not believe.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Subsentient on Monday July 13 2020, @12:27PM (21 children)
Regardless of its utility, I won't use it, because there's always that one guy who will point out that I used it, and that annoys me.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @02:01PM (2 children)
Disregard that one guy!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @08:04PM
But, if you did not, that would be not -not(dis)- regarding him, or making him irregardlessed, and you irregardless?
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday July 14 2020, @09:55AM
FTFY
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday July 13 2020, @03:00PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @03:53PM (16 children)
But that begs the question whether they are right or not.
(Aha! Did I use that correctly here or not? Mwuaa-haa-haa-ha!)
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday July 13 2020, @08:06PM (15 children)
NO! You did not. And, it's not funny. Get help [begthequestion.info], irregarless of how you feel about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @09:09PM (14 children)
More Aristarchus bullshit. If there's ever a contest around here for most retarded poster, you've got a great shot at taking home the title.
As far as begging the question goes, the GP is right. The fact that there's a logical fallacy of the same name, doesn't change the fact that it's widely understood by the non-retarded to mean raises the question.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday July 13 2020, @09:34PM (13 children)
FTFY
The ignorant and illiterate do not get to define language, irregarbleness of common usuage. Your protest is something of a damp squid [telegraph.co.uk], and cast to die [thefreedictionary.com].
Your problem is, I am more educated than you, and I do not use developmental progress as an insult. I am sorry you do not understand language, even your own patria lingua. But you should respect those who know more than you do, lest you accidentally end up with an functionally illiterate reality TV idiot as Precedent, or dead from a novo-corona virus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @09:53PM (12 children)
This is a textbook example of Dunning-Kruger in effect. The phrase means "to raise the question" in most contexts and most people recognize it to mean that. The fact that it matches up with a fallacy does not change that reality. It means that in one context and the toher meaning is usually the correct one to go with. People who are educated and actually literate can handle a phrase or word having more than one meaning. As opposed to those that got their degree from a diploma mill.
And BTW, as somebody who speaks multiple languages, I would never be so arrogant as to pretend like I know more about the usage of words and phrases than a native speaker living someplace where the language is being used. It just demonstrates that you're so ignorant that you don't even realize that you're ignorant.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday July 13 2020, @10:28PM (7 children)
Sorry, you are still an idiot. "Begs the question" is not a change in language, like slang "Bad" meaning "Good", or "Cool" meaning "hot", or someone 6'4" being nicknamed "Tiny". Instead it is an illiterate mistake based on a superficial phonetic similarity, much like how the British English phrase, "damp squib", for a disappointing outcome as with damp explosives, became "damp squid", which makes no sense, since squid are nearly always wet, and hardly a disappointment. So the common (incorrect) usage is derivative, and wrong, since the fallacy precedes it by millennium.
And, native speakers, especially Americans, are no authorities on English, especially with recent Republican cuts to education and insistence that stupidity is just as valid as knowledge. I have been speaking English for many lifetimes longer than these native speakers, having hung out with the Scald who composed Beowulf, and assisted King Alfred in his translation of Boethius. Your problem is the more classic version of the Dunning-Kruger effect, in that you are incapable of understanding when someone does actually have more knowledge and experience than you, and have the audacity to be so arrogant as to accuse another of Dunning-Kruger. I say, "Good Day, Sirrah!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @01:08AM (5 children)
You're pretty much proving my point here. There's a certain irony that you make these racist claims about all Americans when you took umbrage at me calling you in particular developmentally delayed. And yes, you're proving my point in every post.
It's not an illiterate mistake to use begs the question in that fashion. Or would you say that "This demands an answer" is improper English because it's more or less the exact same phrase and exact same meaning. It's perfectly acceptable English whether you're in an informal setting or at a board room meeting. The fact that your English is so poor that you don't know that changes nothing. The phrase will continue to be used and you'll continue to incorrectly claim that it's inappropriate. Fortunately, you're not a native speaker, so nobody is going to give two shits what you think.
As far as Dunning Kruger goes, you assume without any evidence that you know more about me. I used to teach English and I've already successfully completed a graduate level program to do so. I think I know a thing or two about how languages work, especially English. You can make racist accusations and lie about your proficiency, but at the end of the day, we both know that you are talking out of your ass. It's well established that language follows the usage of the native speakers and that the native speakers. It's also well-established that when the powerful use language in a certain way that that use has a degree of legitimacy.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 14 2020, @01:50AM (4 children)
Tu quoque, amicus meus.
Congrats. But, you got the qualifications, after you taught? Unusual.
"And that the native speakers . . . .?" Yes? Incomplete sentences do you bolster you case for being a language expert. Perhaps you would like a bugger from Buttruckers? (ref: Idiocracy [youtube.com])
Oh, is this the Humpty Dumpty defense, or the Trump covfefe? Not true, because with great power does not come great literacy, though we philosophers have been suggesting this might actually be a good idea.
No, I think we are done here. You are the one who resorted to insult, and I never said anything racist about Americans! It is more a critique of recent American Culture. Americans are more and more perversely and proudly ignorant, what with an idiot fundie Christian as Secretary of Education, Secretary of HUD (a physcian?) shilling for snake oil, and a real estate developer as President? Idiocracy is more than halfway achieved! I, and any educated person in the world, have a duty to call America on its decline. Let it start by not begging the question of whether America is great.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:09AM (1 child)
First off, nothing in that sentence indicates which event happened first. Both of them are relative to today. Logic, that thing you suck at, would indicate which item happened before the other. The internet is an informal register and there's no obligation to spend a lot of time grammar checking things to see if there absolutely perfect in everyway
Secondly, that's a really bad example. That was a single use one time and as far as I know, he never used the word covfefe again. When they start using that word in boardrooms and during job interviews, then we'll consider that a valid example. At present, I'm not away of anybody significant that uses the word on a regular basis.
As for the insulting, you've really gone out of your way to demonstrate what I'm talking about. This post and myriad other ones I've seen over the years are that of somebody that's developmentally delayed.
Right, nothing at all racist about that. BTW, you're inability to actually understand any of what you're talking about is not appropriate for somebody that claims to be an adult and certainly not an educated one. Sure, I've got a few typos because this isn't my fucking job, but let's be honest, at least I know what I'm talking about. You just pull it out of your ass and aren't even close to being right.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 14 2020, @03:04AM
So, your problem is more syntactical than lexical? And you have a job fucking? Sex industry worker? (keep up on current parlance, please).
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday July 14 2020, @11:50AM (1 child)
> Tu quoque, amicus meus.
Vocative exists for a reason, aristarche.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @06:54AM
Touché , bot! A hit, a most palpable hit! Meum Culpam!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @01:49AM
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/beg-the-question [merriam-webster.com] , if you don't like that, you can just suck it. Nobody around here thinks you're smart or clever for being too stupid to know when you've lost.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @01:16AM (3 children)
When someone says 'begs the question', I interpret it differently based on their level of ignorance and education. Since most people are idiots it stands to reason that I'll interpret as 'raises the question'. Every now and then I'm pleasantly surprised to hear it used correctly in context, and when that happens, it's always by someone who is educated and intelligent.
Using 'irregardless', or 'begs the question' incorrectly is best summed up by the saying: "It's better to remain silent and have people think you're stupid, than to speak up and remove any doubt."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @01:54AM (2 children)
But, strictly speaking, you've got that backwards. "Begging the question" as a fallacy is the result of a bad translation and it's led to beg gaining the definition of evade. Begging the question as in demanding one ask is much more in keeping with the actual words which is why that's the meaning that people use in most cases.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/beg-the-question [merriam-webster.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2020, @07:00AM
So there is no doubt that you actually are an idiot, then?
Um, what? Your interpretation beggars belief! I think you have buggered the question.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 16 2020, @12:48AM
No, not really a matter of bad translation. Of course, used to be that any European who was literate or logical did so in Latin. But times change. As a test, ask yourself whether someone who is "question begging" is begging for questions to be asked. No, "questions begging" is presuming the very thing in question, a form of circular reasoning, and not a request for information at all. Irregardless of what you and other "common usage" idiots may believe.