I was reading a Japanese sentence of which part read

> 生真面目な性格で、 **何によらず** 人の注目を引くことが苦手だった。

but could not work out the meaning of 何によらず. I thought that perhaps the よらず is
the negative of よる but that still didn't make sense to me.

Just wondering if anyone has come across this before and know what it means.
Any help much appreciated.

The meanings of the other words in that sentence are

  * 生真面目【きまじめ】 _too serious, a person who is too serious_
  * 性格【せいかく】 _character, personality_
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2015-08-25T12:52:51.710
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2015-08-26T17:42:51.893
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meaning expressions
Meaning of 何によらず
によらず means regardless of

for example： すなわち，血によらず，肉によらず，人によらず，神によって生まれた人々である who were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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2015-08-25T13:21:42.157
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answer
何によらず (literally "regardless of whatever") indicates that the following part
applies for every respect. I think you can translate it using "in all
respects", "in every way", "whatever it is", "whatsoever", "all sorts of",
etc.

何事【なにごと】によらず means the same, and is more common, according to [BCCWJ
Corpus](http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp/shonagon/).

By the way, 生真面目 does not necessarily have the negative connotation, and it
can just mean _very serious_ or _earnest_.
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2015-08-26T16:28:18.720
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answer