I frequently hear people saying "I couldn't care less." I have said it myself.
However, when I heard it today it suddenly occurred to me that what was actually meant was that the person could not care (at all). The implication being that if I 'could not care less' then, to make sense, that had to be followed by '...than (some defined level of care).
For example: 'I could not care less about the colour of your socks' means that I care about them at a defined level. If I want to say that I actually don't care about your socks then what I should say is "I do not care about the colour of your socks".
What on earth started me on that esoteric linguistic train of thought?
Come to think of it I could not care less about the topic of this post.
I have also recently seen comments that say " I could care less" - omitting the not - which means something else entirely to my mind.
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