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.
ReplyDeleteI'm familiar with the "I couldn't care less" expression in English and might use it myself to express total indifference. To me the implied ending to the phrase would be something like "I couldn't care less if I tried". (And I agree with JayCee about "I could care less".)
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