Post #527640 by Bohemiann on Mon, May 3, 2010 7:50 AM

Irregardless versus Regardless

First, let's talk about irregardless. Some people mistakenly use irregardless when they mean “regardless.” Regardless means “regard less,” “without regard,” or despite something. For example, John-O will post threads regardless of the consequences.

The prefix ir- (i-r) is a negative prefix, so if you add the prefix ir to a word that's already negative like regardless, you're making a double-negative word that literally means “without without regard.”

Language experts speculate that irregardless comes from a combination of the words regardless and irrespective and that another reason people might say "irregardless" is that they are following the pattern of words like irregular and irreplaceable. But regardless already has the -less suffix on the end, so it's not like those other words.

Now...... we should speak to the word Anal retentive

The anal stage is said to follow the oral stage of infant/early-childhood development. This is a time when an infant's attention moves from oral stimulation to anal stimulation (usually the bowels but occasionally the bladder), usually synchronous with learning to control their excretory functions, a time of toilet training.

Freud theorized that children who experience conflicts during this period of time may develop "anal" personality traits, namely those associated with efforts at excretory control: orderliness, stubbornness, a compulsion for control and the need to correct others grammar.