Before the grammar nazi in you debate over it, you might want to stop. ‘Irregardless’ is indeed a word, albeit an old fashion one. Merriam- Webster has just recognised ‘irregardless’as a real word. ‘Irregardless’ to say, the move has caused a huge uproar among the language lovers.
Merriam- Webster has shared the news on their website, “It has come to our attention lately that there is a small and polite group of people who are not overly fond of the word irregardless.” Reasoning their choice, they further stated, “The reason we, and these dictionaries above, define irregardless is very simple: it meets our criteria for inclusion. This word has been used by a large number of people (millions) for a long time (over two hundred years) with a specific and identifiable meaning (“regardless”).”
Going on to define the word, they stated, “We define irregardless, even though this act hurts the feelings of many. Why would a dictionary do such a thing? Do we enjoy causing pain? Have we abdicated our role as arbiter of all that is good and pure in the English language? These are all excellent questions (well, these are all questions), and you might ask them of some of these other fine dictionaries, all of whom also appear to enjoy causing pain through the defining of tawdry words.”
Along with this, it has also added 535 new words this year such as thirsty signifying strong desire for attention and zonkey which is a hybrid of zebra and monkey.
