Career tips : Entitled means Deserves

Just a little vent about a couple of words that are NOT interchangeable.

The name of a book, painting, building, place, etc. is its Title, not its Entitle. People who deserve something are Entitled to it. At work, I'm always doing a global search & replace to take out "Entitle" and put in "Title". All these college grads don't seem to know any better.

Whenever I see the words "See the paragraph entitled "Whatever", I think "to what is it entitled?".

People also think "irregardless" is a word. As my mother used to say, "do you mean disirregardless?". It's simply "regardless".

Grammar cop signing off now,

Out of curiosity, I looked up "entitle" in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and the first definition is: to give a title to; designate. Therefore, "See the paragraph entitled..." is correct.

And "irregardless" is a word. Here's the explanation in the same dictionary: Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that "there is no such word." There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.

It's an incorrect usage of "entitled." There's a good article about the subject by a grammarian at Purdue that explains the difference between "titled" and "entitled" well:

http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcomm/ontarget/0506/GrammarTraptitledvs.entitled.htm

I understand that you're trying to clarify, but let's not perpetuate the usage because merriam webster or wikipedia explains its origins.

True, historically, irregardless might've been a word back in 1927, but if someone uses it now, they sound foolish, uneducated or both. Keeping it in the general lexicon, even to explain, is a bad idea, as most of the general population will read past the sentence that says, "Use regardless instead" and say, "Ohhh, see I was right, it IS a word, I'll keep using it and sound smart!"

To me, fingernails across a chalkboard.

Irregardless-blend of irrespective and regardless. Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. It's fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that "there is no such word." There is such a word however, It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. It's reputation has not risen over the years.

It may not be a popular word, but it most definitely a WORD.

tb;)

Career Tips

Entitled means Deserves