Bad English

Irregardless. A made up word. The correct word is REGARDLESS. The word irregardless does not exist.

Yet, almost everyday, you hear someone using the made-up word irregardless when they meant to say regardless.

I hate these made-up words with incorrectly applied prefixes that butcher our language Especially because they eventually and inevitably find their way into ‘accepted’ language.

Need proof? Consider another made-up word with an incorrectly applied, redundant prefix that has made its way into our ‘accepted’ language - the word ‘pre-existing’. This made-up word is now used extensively by your health insurance carrier to deny people health insurance coverage.

The word that they should be using is‘existing’. Either the condition existed when you signed up for health insurance or it didn’t. “Existing’ is a perfectly fine word that almost everybody understands, so why make up a new word like ‘pre-existing’?

It’s quite simple - creating a new word is part and parcel to several well established propaganda techniques. They are not denying you coverage because of your ‘existing’ condition, they are doing it because of your “pre-existing condition”. Denying someone health insurance because they are already ill would seem cruel to most people, so they coin a new word, a euphemism, that means the same thing but sounds just different enough to mask what it really means – i.e.: we’re not going to cover you because you are already sick.

Yes, the difference is quite subtle, but it has the desired effect of helping defuse this volatile issue. Trust me on this – irregardless of what you might think, some spin doctor thought long and hard to add this new word to our lexicon. One positive aspect of the health care reform act is that this made up word may soon become an anachronism.


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