Double Negatives

There is a craze at work for using the word ‘irregardless’, which is assumed to mean “without regard to” but actually means (if it means anything) “without without regard to”, hence “respectful of”. I like this putdown from The American Heritage Dictionary:

The Third Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary states firmly that “the label ‘nonstandard’ does not begin to do justice to the status of this word”

2 Comments

  1. Posted July 27, 2006 at 2:45 pm | Permalink

    If we’re talking about the same meeting/presentation, several people heard me muttering in a stage whisper/mutter “That’s not even a real word”

  2. Posted July 28, 2006 at 9:23 am | Permalink

    Innovation! Double negatives work fine in Deutch, y’all.