Nevermind.
Goes to show: media outlets are majoritarian. Fox, WSJ, NYTimes, et al. spend their time catering to the majority, reinforcing what we already want to hear. The media doesn't suffer from a left/right bias as much as it suffers from a "don't rock the boat" bias.
Posted by I_changed_my_name on 2006-11-20 19:37:08 +0000
I know that guy. He's ok.
Posted by pchippy on 2006-11-21 15:25:30 +0000
AHD hasn't bothered to include "respectless," probably for two reasons:
1.) It really isn't used very much. (12,000 English-language Ghits, as of today. For comparison, "formication" gets 72,000 Ghits, and "delurking" gets 95,000.)
2.) There are already two perfectly good words that between them cover both the historic-and-now-obsolete sense (meaning "regardless") and the historic-and-now-nonstandard sense (meaning "disrespectful"). Using either of these words will be less ambiguous and less likely to incur your listeners'/readers' contempt than will using "respectless," despite its honorable history.
In short, educated people are likely to be respectless of anyone who uses respectless, respectless of respectless's honorable history.