Mertcan Bulak: In the back of our minds, we are always sprucing the language up, making sure it does the job, like a director regularly working with the cast of a long-running play to keep it fresh. This is the source of words condemned as redundant, such as the famous irregardless. One does not technically need the ir - when the - less of regardless already conveys the negation. However, the fact that the reinforced version with ir - has been so readily taken up indicates that people want that negation component to be as clear as possible. In the word overwhelm , you might wonder why there is no word whelm . In fact, there once was. You might wonder what it meant, and it meant … “to overwhelm.”

In the back of our minds, we are always sprucing the language up, making sure it does the job, like a director regularly working with the cast of a long-running play to keep it fresh. This is the source of words condemned as redundant, such as the famous irregardless. One does not technically need the ir - when the - less of regardless already conveys the negation. However, the fact that the reinforced version with ir - has been so readily taken up indicates that people want that negation component to be as clear as possible. In the word overwhelm , you might wonder why there is no word whelm . In fact, there once was. You might wonder what it meant, and it meant … “to overwhelm.”

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Words on the Move John McWhorter

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Mertcan Bulak