•December 21, 2022•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

Tom Peterson read our story about a former Buffalo Grove middle school teacher charged with sexual assault who removed his ankle bracelet and is in the wind.
At the end of the story, we say his next court hearing will be held whether he is there or not. We wrote, “The next hearing in Gibori’s case is Jan. 4 irrespective of whether he is found.”
“Deep into this story I found the word ‘irrespective.’ Don’t see that one too much these days. Wouldn’t ‘regardless’ be better?”
I must admit I’d never given much thought about “regardless” versus “irrespective.”
I found a lot of quibbling debate about subtle differences depending on which part of speech you’re using them for, but in common parlance people use them interchangeably.
Linguist Bryan A. Garner says so, and I am a fan of his logic.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.