Words Are Weird

I love words (and there's probably a word for that but I don't know what it is). But they can be strange and illogical. For instance:

There's empathy and sympathy. Almost identical, right?

BUT....we go from that to: empathic and sympathetic.

Why are they different? Why is the adjective form of the word different from the noun form? Why are we missing an "e-t" in "empathic"? The solution for millions is just to say "em-pa-thet-ic" which is actually incorrect. I imagine the amused condescending thoughts going through people's minds when I say "empathic"---"poor girl, doesn't know how to pronounce that word right". I wonder if, when I do happen to use the word, anyone goes home to look it up. In my dictionary, under "empathetic", it says (you guessed it maybe): EMPATHIC. And then the second definition actually defines what empathic is.

I hate this new trend where, if a word gets said incorrectly enough, the word police just succumb and make it a word. Take "irregardless". Irregardless is not a word---or it wasn't a word until it was said so many times by people who meant to say "regardless" that it now gets put in the dictionary as a word. In fact, a sister-in-law of mine lost a bet in law school because she said that irregardless wasn't a word and wouldn't be in the dictionary. It was in the dictionary, and the definition? Yep: "REGARDLESS" Hel-looo! (I definitely think that was a bet she should have won, and I'm surprised that she wasn't able to pull off a sound-enough argument, being a law student and all. Of course, she was surrounded in like manner so maybe she was just outnumbered).

On the flip side of that, I love that language isn't static. I love that it can change as society changes, as cultures intermix and -mingle. I love that it isn't set in concrete....So, you can see that I'm of two minds here. As long as both minds delight in words, I'm fine with that.