Early appearances of "irregardless"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I love it. History comes alive.

JL

Bonnie Taylor-Blake <taylor-blake at NC.RR.COM> wrote: ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society
Poster:       Bonnie Taylor-Blake
Subject:      Early appearances of "irregardless"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm always a little concerned that I'm simply repeating work that someone's
already posted or published here or elsewhere.  Irregardless, since the word
came up on the list today, I'll go ahead and share several early appearances
of "irregardless" that I've found in American publications.  (OED2 provides
as an early sighting an entry from Wentworth's _American Dialect
Dictionary_, 1912.)

-- Bonnie

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(From the poem "The Old Woman and Her Tabby," *City Gazette and Daily
Advertiser* [Charleston, South Carolina], 23 June 1795, Vol. XIII, Issue
2458, Pg. 3.  [Archives of Americana])

But death, irregardless of tenderest ties,
   Resolv'd the good *Betty*, at length, to bereave:
He strikes -- the poor fav'rite reluctantly dies!
   Breaks her mistress's heart -- both descend to the grave.

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(From "Trip to Harrisburg, &c."  *The Grant County Witness* [Platteville,
Wisconsin], 3 October 1861, Pg. 2.  [newspaperarchive.com])

As five as per order, down came the tents irregardless of the occupants,
should there be any.

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(From *The New York Herald*, 29 January 1862.  [Accessible Archives])

He was the bearer of messages from commercial men in the South to English
merchants in reference to opening a trade with the South irregardless of the
federal blockade.

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(From "Notes on Current Events:  Foreign an Domestic.  The War Policy and
the Constitution," *The Knickerbocker Monthly; A National Magazine*, March
1863, 61, 3, Pg. 280.  [APS Online])

Goaded on, solicited, threatened, implored, to appease the fanatical
representatives of abolitionism, irregardless of what conservatism which
recent elections demonstrate so incontestably preponderates at the North,
[...].

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(From "Texas Items," *Flake's Bulletin* [Galveston, Texas], 3 October 1867,
Vol. III, Issue 90, Pg. 5. [Archive of Americana])

Judge Noonan has applied to the Governor for permission to summon jurors
irregardless of the test oath ordered to be administered by General Griffin,
knowing that such a jury as required cannot be found in his upper counties.
[Reprinted from the San Antonio Herald, 25 September.]

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("Irregardless" appears with growing frequency in publications from the
1870s and thereafter. -- BTB)

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