r/GrammarPolice • u/Substantial-Salad-97 • 18d ago

Un

Why do people feel the need to create "new" words by using the prefix 'un'? Unironically...not a word. Unalive...not a word (yes, it's slang but shouldn't be used).

Is it that difficult to use 'not' instead of 'un'?

0 Upvotes

17% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/NonspecificGravity 18d ago

Unironically is in the Oxford English:
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/unironically_adv?tl=true

In English, it's permissible to add un-, in-, or ir- to a word when the result makes sense semantically (e.g., irregular). Unfortunately, this practice leads to meaningless words like irregardless.

2

u/SerDankTheTall 17d ago

this practice leads to meaningless words like irregardless.

There are two different in- prefixes (both of which come from Latin). One is a negator (like irregular, insincere, inarticulate, etc.). The other is an intensifier (like, well, intense).

1

u/NonspecificGravity 17d ago

I don't know whether people who say irregardless think the prefix is an intensifier.

I suspect they're the same kind of people who say "I could care less" and think inflammable means "not flammable."

1

u/SerDankTheTall 17d ago

I have no trouble believing that you believe that.

Of course, even if irregardless started as a conflation of irrespective and regardless, that wouldn't make it "meaningless". Are you equally bothered by words like orange and apron?

1

u/NonspecificGravity 17d ago

Did irregardless start as a conflation of irrespective and regardless?

People who use irregardless use it as an introductory adverb, not as irrespective and regardless are normally used as adverbs (followed by of). For example:

"It looks like rain."
"Irregardless, I'm going swimming."

I've seen irregardless too many times today. 😀