Literally just talking about that! I agree that the original intent (and, you know, meanings of words) should make it “couldn’t” but I think the two have linguistically drifted together within the phrase.
The rules-boy in me rallies against it, but the descriptivist in me celebrates and I couldn’t care less how he said it.
Literally just talking about that! I agree that the original intent (and, you know, meanings of words) should make it “couldn’t” but I think the two have linguistically drifted together within the phrase.
The rules-boy in me rallies against it, but the descriptivist in me celebrates and I couldn’t care less how he said it.
Wittgenstein said that language isn’t actually semantic in its natural state. Instead, language serves as a sort of game to accomplish social ends.
“I could care less” serves the social end of telling everyone you have no critical thinking skills and shouldn’t be taken seriously.