Nonwords
Bill from Merit,
Michigan, called during Tuesday’s show to highlight one of his pet peeves: the
use of irregardless when one means regardless. While it shows up in speech
and is even discussed in some dictionaries, it is definitely
nonstandard. Using it in writing deservedly brands the user as careless at
best, ignorant at worst.
There are a few similar
instances:
Preventative
instead of preventive. A book by Murli Desai bears the title, A Rights-Based Preventative Approach for
Psychosocial Well-being in Childhood
Analyzation
instead of analysis.
The table of contents in the Annual Report of the Bureau of
Labor and Industrial Statistics, Volume 7, consistently used the word
analyzation.
·
Orientated instead of oriented. S. Jacob wrote Human Anatomy: A Clinically-Orientated Approach.
· Annoyment
instead of annoyance. “He had noticed that an
uneasiness from one source of annoyment or resentment could easily transfer itself to a lesser one, so that
putting that thing right did not always remove the feeling of being annoyed that it seemed to cause.”
This is found in Robert Fielding’s Other
People Other Words.
·
Conversate instead of converse. While an obvious back formation from
conversation, it simply wasn’t needed; converse came into English in 1340.
·
Botheration instead of bother. Russ Hoover’s Demand Healing: The Advanced Study of Mood and Ego Remission uses
it constantly, as in, “Obviously, we are all aware of things that are not okay
and for which we experience no level of botheration.”
·
Unthaw instead of thaw. In 1978,
Harry Brody wrote, When the Bells Unthaw.
Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition
Nook edition
Nook edition
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