irregardless, 1876 (OED: 1912)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>
> A much earlier Southern _irregardless_, posted here a few
> years ago by Bonnie Taylor-Blake:
>
> 1795 _City Gaz. & Daily Advertiser_ (Charleston, S. Carolina)
> (1796) 23 June 3 But death, irregardless of tenderest ties,
> Resolv'd the good _Betty,_ at length, to bereave.

Also reported by Richard Hershberger, giving the whole stanza:

http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/irregardless-has-a-posse/#comment-3152
City Gazette (Charleston, S.C.), June 23, 1795
“The Old Woman and Her Tabby” (final stanza):
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.

I mentioned this cite yesterday when I was on "The Leonard Lopate
Show" talking about "invented" words (starting at about 9:30, after I
finish bloviating about "bloviate"):

http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2010/jul/28/ben-zimmer-refudiates-fake-words/

I also drew on a point made several times on this list by Larry Horn
about pleonastic negatives of the "unXless" variety ("undoubtless",
"unhelpless") from the 16th-17th c. With "irregardless" attested to
the late 18th c., the connection to those words makes a lot more sense
(rather than simply positing a blend of "irrespective" and
"regardless").

--Ben Zimmer

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