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Comment by billforsternz | Hacker News Reader

Obligatory mention that the more correct and logical formulation is "could NOT care less".

Thank you for your service to the English language. This tremendous faux pas is so easy to correct just by thinking for a single second the basic logic of what is being said, and yet so many people continue making the mistake. Even worse, sometimes people justify it with a wacky "I care so little that I could care less, but I won't, that's how little I care" explanation.

It started as a sarcastic statement not a mistake, but it’s been used so often it’s turning into an idium.

Languages are full of phrases that get used so often the original meaning gets lost organs others that are heading that way. Raining cats and Dogs is ancient and nobody is quite sure where it came from, but as long as people understand intent there’s no need for to add up correctly.

Given that in English people say “I couldn’t care less”, seeing the complete opposite is somewhat weird.

Sure, but there’s quite a bit of this stuff. Contronyms will often allow identical phrases with opposite meanings. Left can mean to leave or to remain. Dust can mean to add a fine power to something or to remove it by dusting. Sanction, Bolt, etc there’s quite a few words that mean the opposite or something close to it.

Words with opposite meanings can end up converging. ‘That’s cool’ and ‘that’s hot’ sometimes have the exact same meaning depending on context.

Try as we have, we just couldn't stop 'literally' from turning into a synonym for 'figuratively'.

also see: the definition of moot, e.g. “moot point”.

its the fraternal twin to "with all due respect"

Well I was certainly not expecting to come back and find a large comment thread about _this_ part of my comment. The funny thing is I know the proper usage, I was simply typing fast and rephrased my sentence structure a couple times so the "not" got lost in edits. Keep up the good fight though.

From what I've read, the logical formulation is indeed "could not care less".

But the correct formulation is a shrugging question "I could care less?", with the implication that the care-meter is already pegged at zero.

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