Irregardless

So I was watching television this evening and a woman speaking used the word, irregardless.

It got me to thinking about the word. What does it mean? The woman used it the way I would use the word regardless. So did she mean the opposite of regardless, since the prefix, "ir", would cancel out the meaning of the word? Not the way she was using it.

Well, my friends (who by the way, are much cooler than I am): I looked it up. I googled it. (Is the word, "googled" in the dictionary as a verb yet?)

And my number one go-to all-reliable source (since you know, anyone can write on this site), Wikipedia, had an answer. I will share it:

"The origin of irregardless is not known for certain, but the speculation among references is that it may be a blend, or portmanteau word, of irrespective and regardless, both of which are commonly accepted standard English words. By blending these words, an illogical word is created."

It goes on to discuss double negative words; then says this word was first acknowledged in 1912 by the Wentworth American Dialect Dictionary, as originating from western Indiana. Those Indiana folks are such renegades of the English language, huh? Did the Revolution on the English language start with them? So anyway, less than a decade later, Literary Digest published an article debating this word.

So what did I learn this evening?
I am not the only nerd to get in a bit of a huff about words, or rather, non-words, that don't make sense.

This only encourages the nerd inside me to keep growing.
And that can't be good.