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  EDline Vol. 7, no. 21     (28 January 2002)

  Editorial mailing list (digest version)
  Published by the Electric Editors
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  Contents:

         Q & A
  [2rn]  Could/Couldn't care less

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---[2]-- Q & A --------------------------------------------------


** [2rn] Could/Couldn't care less

         Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002
         From: Linda Richmond, RichComm@whidbey.com

Jane Kerr wrote:

> Is it only the citizens of the USA who "could care less" when
> they are particularly uninterested in something, or do other
> English speakers use this idiom? 

Friends, as a U.S. editor and citizen, it's poor English to say
"could care less." The correct form, and what is really meant,
that the speaker "couldn't care less."


         ------------------------
         Date: Thurs, 24 Jan 2002
         From: David King, david@kingdavid.org

Are you saying that those Americans actually say "could care
less" when they really mean they "could not care less"?

Amazing how corrupt our language is becoming! And very sad.....


         ------------------------
         Date: Thurs, 24 Jan 2002
         From: Jane Lyle, jlyle@indiana.edu

It isn't a corruption--it's an extension of the phrase. It's said
a bit sarcastically, with the stress on the word "care" ("I could
CARE less"; in "I couldn't care less" the stress is on
"couldn't."). You can view it as short for "As if I could
possibly care less!" 

Is it not common in other dialects of English to twist a word or
phrase around and use it in a way that seems to be the opposite
of its usual meaning? If something bad happens, I may say
sarcastically or frustratedly, "That's just great" or "Well,
isn't this lovely" or "I'm downright thrilled to hear this news,"
when I mean just the opposite.


         ------------------------
         Date: Thurs, 24 Jan 2002
         From: Judy Stein, jstein@panix.com

David King wrote:

> Are you saying that those Americans actually say "could care
> less" when they really mean they "could not care less"?

This one isn't really so bad; it's an idiom, or slang. I don't
think anybody would use the same construction with other verbs,
and this instance wouldn't be used in written English except in
written dialogue or when the writing was extremely informal in
tone. It's sort of an ad hoc combination of the rhetorical "Could
I care less?" (the implied answer being "No") and the sarcastic
"Yeah, like [as if] I really care!"


         ----------------------
         Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002
         From: Anna Beth McCormack, mccormack@goulburn.net.au

I always thought 'I couldn't care less' ---with the stress on
COULDN'T or LESS---was a truncation of 'I couldn't care less than
I do' (meaning 'I don't care at all, so it's impossible for me to
care less, so literally I couldn't care less').


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