pet peeve

[Gromnir]

irregardless and irony. both of these words show up in dictionaries and everyday use and they is both making Gromnir

[kirottu]

Only language that doesn

[blue]

Fwiw:

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Oxford English Dictionary

Additions Series 1993

 

irony, n.

 

Add: [2.] spec. in Theatr. (freq. as dramatic or tragic irony), the incongruity created when the (tragic) significance of a character's speech or actions is revealed to the audience but unknown to the character concerned; the literary device so used, orig. in Greek tragedy; also transf. (Later examples.)

 

1907 W. RALEIGH Shakespeare 229/2 (Index), Irony, dramatic. 1942 PARTRIDGE Usage & Abusage 167/2 Dramatic irony is that which consists in a situation not in words;..when the audience..perceives a crux..that the characters concerned do not. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XII. 683/2 In tragedy, what is called

[blue]

more to disirregard:

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Oxford English Dictionary

Second Edition 1989

 

irregardless, a. and adv.

Chiefly N. Amer.

 

In non-standard or humorous use: regardless.

 

1912 in WENTWORTH Amer. Dial. Dict. 1923 Lit. Digest 17 Feb. 76 Is there such a word as irregardless in the English language? 1934 in WEBSTER (labelled Erron. or Humorous, U.S.). 1938 I. KUHN Assigned to Adventure xxx. 310, I made a grand entrance and suffered immediate and complete obliteration, except on the pay-roll, which functioned automatically to present me with a three-figure cheque every week,

Edited March 22, 2006 by blue

[Gromnir]

Only language that doesn

[metadigital]

That's the idiom, not etymology.

 

If you're unhappy with the idiomatic use of

irregardless

n adjective & adverb informal regardless.

 

ORIGIN

C19: probably a blend of irrespective and regardless.

 

USAGE

Irregardless means the same as regardless: the negative prefix ir- is unnecessary as it merely duplicates the suffix -less. The word is regarded as incorrect in standard English.

then you probably don't like

inflammable

n adjective easily set on fire.

n noun a substance which is easily set on fire.

 

DERIVATIVES

inflammability noun

inflammableness noun

inflammably adverb

 

USAGE

The words inflammable and flammable both mean 'easily set on fire'. Inflammable is formed using the Latin prefix in- which has the meaning 'into' (rather than the more common use of in- to indicate negation), and here has the effect of intensifying the meaning of the word in English.

And also, cf.:

iterate 

n verb

1 perform or utter repeatedly.

2 make repeated use of a mathematical or computational procedure, applying it each time to the result of the previous application.

 

DERIVATIVES

iteration noun

 

ORIGIN

C16 (Middle English as iteration): from Latin iterat-, iterare 'repeat'.

 

reiterate

n verb say something again or repeatedly.

 

DERIVATIVES

reiteration noun

reiterative adjective

 

ORIGIN

Middle English: from Latin reiterat-, reiterare 'go over again'.

 

So, "reiterate" means to re-repeat something (again, sic!)

 

And for the record:

ironic 

n adjective

1 using or characterized by irony.

2 happening in the opposite way to what is expected, and causing wry amusement because of this.

 

DERIVATIVES

ironical adjective

ironically adverb

 

ORIGIN

C17: from French ironique or late Latin ironicus, from Greek eironikos 'dissembling', from eironeia (see irony

[alanschu]

I typically associate inflammable to explosive now-a-days.

 

I'm not sure about your critique of reiterate though.

 

I can iterate over a series of problems using the same mathematical procedure, but I'm not doing the exact same thing. To reiterate would be to go over the series of problems an additional time.

 

It could be that I interpret iterate to be a little different, as in CS iterators are pointers that cycle through a container data structure.

Edited March 22, 2006 by alanschu

[metadigital]

That (modern) idiom sounds like a back-formation from the noun "iteration" specific to programming.

[Jorian Drake]

..." inflammable"...

BTW, where is Child of Flame?

[metadigital]

He is not permitted to post here.

[Blank]

irregardless and irony. both of these words show up in dictionaries and everyday use and they is both making Gromnir

Edited March 22, 2006 by Blank

[Lucius]

:"> So, can we spam here? :">

[Blank]

:"> So, can we spam here?  :">

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You can always spam. The thing you must remember though, is that there are consequences to spamming. If you want a thread to be dead, spamming subtly in order to get others to do the same will help your cause. That is a positive consequence for you. However, if you spam and get scolded by mods, then you may contract the all-too-common CoF/Visc disease.

[Lucius]

Your wise council belies your years, old one. :ph34r:

[blue]

agreed.  unfortunately you gets a slippery slope with that pov, don't you?  can anybody measure when you gots 'nuff people using a word wrong that it becomes correct? 

You're right: it's problematic. But doesn't this sort of relate to the historical objectives of the OED? From the introduction:

Not only are the complexities of the English language formidable, but it also never stops evolving. Murray and his Dictionary colleagues had to keep track of new words and new meanings of existing words at the same time that they were trying to examine the previous seven centuries of the language's development.

 

 

Of course, there's no completely reliable measure or "Eureka!" moment for redefining proper use. But right or wrong language evolves--sometimes quickly--and I imagine that in days of yore linguistic conservatives bemoaned many of today

[Gabrielle]

Point not found.

Edited March 23, 2006 by Gabrielle

[Surreptishus]

Now, is gabrielle demonstrating irony or incongrousness?

[metadigital]

Incongruousness.

One of my favourites is:

sanction

n noun

1 a threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule. ⇒(sanctions) measures taken by a state to coerce another to conform to an international agreement or norms of conduct. ⇒Ethics a consideration operating to enforce obedience to any rule of conduct.

2 official permission or approval for an action. ⇒official confirmation or ratification of a law. ⇒Law, historical a law or decree, especially an ecclesiastical one.

n verb

1 give official sanction for.

2 impose a sanction or penalty on.

 

DERIVATIVES

sanctionable adjective

 

ORIGIN

Middle English: from French, from Latin sanctio(n-), from sancire 'ratify'.

[Gabrielle]

What the bloody, bloody, hell does all of these dictionary quotes have to do with pet peeves? Off topic!

[metadigital]

Because Gromnir's pet peeve was that the idiots are chaging the idiom of words like irony.

[Gromnir]

Ok, let us bring focus back...

 

 

"The material above deals with the primary dictionary meaning of the word irony. (there is a great deal of info in the wiki entry that illustrates the traditional uses and origins of irony, but Gromnir need not repeat 'em all at present.) There is no controversy that the usage above is a correct usage; the controversy is over whether it is the only correct usage. Authority, in the form of dictionaries and usage guides, can be cited on both sides.

 

Descriptivists generally discount such self-proclaimed language authorities in favor of studying how individuals currently use the word.

 

It is currently quite common to hear the word ironic used as a synonym for incongruous in situations where there is no

[metadigital]

True, but it's not the first nor the last time this will happen.

 

Divining why the idiomatic usage of words changes over time may be a gainful occupation, but I would suggest there is no way to prevent the process altogether. Even "classical latin" has been amended with neoclassical adaptations and back-formations. (Even Attic Greek was transliterated / adopted into latin, so it is not a new process.)

 

Nevertheless, if I were to hazard a guess as to why the definition of "irony" is changing over time, I would resort to lexicographical Darwinism: the word was atrophying and another use was foun for it. The word fits into people's Weltanschauung better as verbal irony, and this is used to differentiate from hypocrisy (maybe because the potency of hypocrisy is waning and another totemic word needs to be invoked to convey the same gravity?). Incongruity, methinks, is under the shadow of the mathematical term "congruent", and has too much baggage for arts majors to use in conversation ... :D

[Gromnir]

oh and to add to list of peeves...

 

am not a fan of having to talk to an answering machine rather than a person, but we understands the near necessity in this day and age for there to be answering machines and voicemail and such.

 

however, is a completely different thing when an answering machine calls Gromnir. there should be a special place in hell for the guy who invented the damned auto-dialer machines that call us at 7:00 am informing us that our new platinum credit card from Schlock Bank Inc is only a phone call away from being processed.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[metadigital]

I thought that was illegal, like fax spamming?

[tarna]

Add these to your list...

 

'Societal' - this word did not exist 20 years ago. Salesmen, advertisers and other dumbasses tinker with the language in an attempt to sound more intelligent than they really are. 'Methodology' being used in place of methods. Anyone that can speak something other than Ebonics should know that the suffix 'ology' means the study of. These lingua-maggots think they sound highbrowed for using big words they don't know the meaning of. Adding 'age' to the end of a word is another example these podleezee. What kind of a stupid word is 'sportage'or 'signage'? I got a parking ticket several years ago that the mental giant writing tickets actually put 'signage' on my parking ticket.

In school I took four languages in addition to my native English and learned how important common agreement of meanings are and then guttersnipes turn our language inside out so they can sound cool. It's little wonder why we can't understand each other.

I'm all for a language being fluid to meet the needs to the society speaking it but to create new sounds and call them words just to sound cool is just stupid and shallow. bling?

oh and to add to list of peeves...

 

...there should be a special place in hell for the guy who invented the damned auto-dialer machines that call us at 7:00 am informing us that our new platinum credit card from Schlock Bank Inc is only a phone call away from being processed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Gotta agree with you here. I actually looked forward to getting some slack-jawed moron calling me to sell me his widgets. My wife however was so offended by my recommending that the caller 'Kill himself' that she put us on the No Call List. God I was bummed over that.

Now when I get a call from a machine, it kinda takes all the fun out of it. When I have someone call my house, I can say anything I want to them as long as I don't threaten them. With a machine I'm denied that entertainment.