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> Speaking of corrupted language, one word that hits me like nails on a chalkboard is "irregardless". It's not even a word. "Regardless" itself is a negation of the sentence which it preceeds. The prefix "ir" negates as well. So, when someone says it, there actually stating a meaning that is the opposite of their intentions. They may as well not have used a word there at all. In fact, let's just not let those people speak whatsoever.
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> Tra "don't get me started on 'not hardly'" nio


I went back and forth with my ex-girlfriend about this (no, that's not why we split up.) She used "irregardless" in a sentence, and I corrected her, because I, too, hate that word with a passion. She swore it was a word. Her mother backed her up, and said that "of course" it was a word. I explained exactly what you said, that "regardless" is a negation in itself, and "irregardless" turns it back into a positive--they wouldn't hear it. Irregardless was correct, and that was that. I challened them to look it up. They did, in *two separate dictionaries*. And to my extreme horror, it was *there*, in *both* dictionaries, and it wasn't even listed as slang or anything.

So I've just given up on crap like this. I can't fix it, and apparently, I can't even fall back on people who should know better (those who compile dictionaries) for help, so why bother?