Meeting summary/minutes from today's FESCo meeting (2010-09-14)

Matthew Garrett mjg59 at srcf.ucam.org
Wed Sep 15 14:11:10 UTC 2010


On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 03:04:31PM +0100, Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-09-15 at 14:57 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 12:48:26PM +0100, Adam Williamson wrote:
> > > 'regardless'. 'irregardless' would mean 'not regardless'. =)
> > 
> > The OED disagrees.
> 
> Not really. It lists 'irregardless' as 'colloquial', IIRC (I don't have
> my login handy right now, my library card is in Canada...), which is the
> OED equivalent of a ten-poot barge pole. :)

You can argue over whether it's accepted as "correct" English, but it 
has a well-defined meaning even if that meaning is contrary to what 
normal word construction rules would lead you to accept. In any case, 
quibbling about language usage generally serves to belittle the person 
you're criticising - it doesn't encourage an attitude of mutual respect 
and does nothing to foster an atmosphere in which we can have a 
civilised and productive discussion. Let's be more excellent and less 
prescriptive?

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59 at srcf.ucam.org


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