Irregardless

I just heard a man on the radio use the word irregardless, an evil word used more and more these days. Worse, the man was an instructor from Mount Royal College. He may be a full Professor by now given the recent regulatory changes and the College's elevation. Nonetheless I regard the use of this word as careless and perhaps even illiterate.

Since the early 1900's the word was flagged by dictionaries as incorrect. Over time this has eased a bit to now where many dictionaries describe it as merely non-standard.

Language, like Lutefisk, is dynamic and organic, not static. So I won't be surprised if eventually irregardless becomes a first class word. Even if that does happen, I would hope that teachers will mark down use of the word on the grounds of poor style.

Wikipedia claims that irregardless is a portmanteau of irrespective and regardless. This might be true, but I hope not because generally I find portmanteaus very clever and they've often been very good to me.

Irregardless is a double negative and the prefix adds no value to the word at all. Its main appeal is that when spoken it sounds more sophisticated than regardless.

I demand that this word be put under house arrest. Please recommend this post