Onward Hoe!

It's been brought to my attention that "alright" is not a word, but that it is, in fact, a misspelling of "all right." To this I say: You prescriptivists need to go out immediately and find a copy of Who Moved My Cheese? Read it, and get over yourselves. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the situation.

Alright is an alternative spelling of "all right". It is usually used to indicate that something is good but not great (so-so): "The play was alright." It is also used as an expression of great pleasure: "We won the championship! Alright!"

Used as a definite distinction from "all right" as in "everything" (all) "correct" (right). To represent "kind of" or "sort of."

Although "Alright" has been in use for a little over a century, it is considered by most experts to be an illegitimate spelling of the word. This is in contrast to the similar words "already" and "altogether", which have been used as compound words since the Middle Ages.

Even though it often appears in print, the use of "alright" in any context other than slang is generally frowned upon and may be perceived as purposefully breaking convention.

So "already" and "altogether" are perfectly acceptable words, and why? Because they've been around longer. That's it. Give "alright" another hundred years, and no one will argue with it at all. In fact, the experts will be the ones telling the story of how it became a compound word rather than the ones telling everybody else they're wrong for using it. I suppose I can't really be angry with the "experts," though, because I'm pretty sure that in a hundred years, "gonna" and "wanna" will be in the same position "alright" is in now, and there will be people around still fighting for my current opinion that those are not words. But another hundred years after that, nobody will remember them not being words, and that'll be that. Sigh. Ch- ch- ch- ch- changes...