# "I could care less" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2014, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622 "2014-08-27T11:49:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/1 "2014-08-27T11:49:19Z")
Now, I have done an advanced search and couldn’t find a thread on this topic anywhere, so hopefully I am not duplicating any previous discussion. The reason the thread is in General as opposed to Great Debates is because I would like to know whether the American expression “I could care less” has always been accepted usage, or whether the UK expression “I _ **couldn’t** _ care less” has ever been common currency in the States, and somehow became transmuted into “I _ **could** _ care less”. I am not seeking to provoke a debate here on the relative merits of either expression (although obviously I do have a strong opinion) , rather I wish to ascertain whether the UK usage was ever the preferred usage in the States. I have a bet with my wife that among the first ten replies on this thread, somebody will post up “I could care less” as the entire content of the post. Don’t let me down … ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/2 "2014-08-27T11:53:16Z")
I can’t point to any cites, but I’m American and I say “couldn’t”, as do several other people I know. My assumption is that “couldn’t” was the original saying here, but it morphed into “could” sometime in the last few decades. I’m sure an etymologist will be around shortly to straighten us both out. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/3 "2014-08-27T11:54:13Z")
Yes, it has morphed. Both are now widely used. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/4 "2014-08-27T11:54:28Z")
In my experience, the couldn’t version is more common in the US, and the could version always sounds like the person saying it doesn’t know what the words mean, and couldn’t care less. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/5 "2014-08-27T11:57:54Z")
“I could care less” doesn’t make sense in the context it is normally used. (Or the intent meant.) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/6 "2014-08-27T11:59:07Z")
Both phrases are fairly new - with “could” being newer and less common than “could not” - see chart [Google Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=I+could+care+less%2CI+could+not+care+less&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CI%20could%20care%20less%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CI%20could%20not%20care%20less%3B%2Cc0) In any case, idiomatic expressions almost never make sense literally - when was the last time your head wasn’t over your heels? ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/7 "2014-08-27T12:33:31Z")
A quick google finds this; > **[Caring About Whether You Couldn't Care Less - Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/e/could-care-less/)** > > When you want to colloquially express that you don’t care at all about something, you might say “I couldn’t care less.” This phrase first popped up in British English at the turn of the 20th century and is still popular today. In the 1960s, a... > [@](#): > > It was originally a British saying and came to the US in the 1950s. It is senseless to transform it into the now-common I could care less. If you could care less, that means you care at least a little. The original is quite sarcastic and the other form is clearly nonsense. The inverted form I could care less was coined in the US and is found only here, recorded in print by 1966. I disagree strongly that the ‘I could care less’ version is senseless; it has an inventive inversion or implication that makes the listener think. In fact it seems to be an evolved form of the original idiom, which is somewhat dull and pedestrian. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/8 "2014-08-27T12:57:32Z")
British comedian David Mitchell has a good take on this phrase: [Dear America... | David Mitchell's SoapBox - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/9 "2014-08-27T12:58:07Z")
_“I suppose in theory, I could possibly care less than I currently do, but in practice probably not.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/10 "2014-08-27T13:00:02Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I disagree strongly that the ‘I could care less’ version is senseless; it has an inventive inversion or implication that makes the listener think. In fact it seems to be an evolved form of the original idiom, which is somewhat dull and pedestrian. I don’t buy it. I’ve heard “I could care less” defended before, but I’m not convinced. I believe that, at least nine times out of ten, the person who says “I could care less” is simply being careless (no pun intended) and doesn’t think about the actual meaning of what he/she says, though I’d be interested in any hard evidence you have to the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/11 "2014-08-27T13:00:04Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > A quick google finds this; > [Caring About Whether You Couldn't Care Less - Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/g09.html) > I disagree strongly that the ‘I could care less’ version is senseless; it has an inventive inversion or implication that makes the listener think that the speaker is a moron! I see nothing inventive about it. It is just a result of thoughtlessness. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/12 "2014-08-27T13:08:23Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > Now, I have done an advanced search and couldn’t find a thread on this topic anywhere, so hopefully I am not duplicating any previous discussion. I could care less, but hee’s a 2000 thread HERE… I suppose there are more elsewhere. > **[I could care less](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=35028)** > > Why do people use the ridiculous expression: “I could care less”? Don’t they realize that this is the exact opposite of what they are trying to convey? The intended meaning is that the person does not care at all, but the literal meaning of the... ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/13 "2014-08-27T13:23:08Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > _“I suppose in theory, I could possibly care less than I currently do, but in practice probably not.”_ Lame! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/14 "2014-08-27T13:59:19Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > British comedian David Mitchell has a good take on this phrase: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw) \*\*“I could care less” is absolutely useless as an indicator of how much you care because the \*only \*thing that it rules out is that you don’t care at all which is _exactly what you are trying to convey._ ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/15 "2014-08-27T14:12:20Z")
It’s not as if I could care less but Weird Al mentions the phrase in Word Crimes. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/16 "2014-08-27T14:16:17Z")
‘I could care less’ has many possible interpretations. I could care less _but that would be difficult and I really can’t be bothered._ I could care less, _but not much less._ I could care less,\* but not by much.\* and so on. And (as pointed out in that link), it is an example of a sarcastic inversion, like _Tell me about it!_ > [@](#): > > There are other American English expressions that have a similar sarcastic inversion of an apparent sense, such as Tell me about it!, which usually means ‘Don’t tell me about it, because I know all about it already’. The Yiddish I should be so lucky!, in which the real sense is often ‘I have no hope of being so lucky’, has a similar stress pattern with the same sarcastic inversion of meaning as does I could care less. All in all, a much richer idiom than the ‘couldn’t’ version. ---
**Author:** ![yearofglad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b782af/32.png) [@yearofglad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yearofglad)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/17 "2014-08-27T14:22:37Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > ‘I could care less’ has many possible interpretations. > I could care less _but that would be difficult and I really can’t be bothered._ > I could care less, _but not much less._ > I could care less,\* but not by much.\* > and so on. The “and so on” includes things like: I could care less _because I care very deeply_. I could care less _because I’m caring with 100% of my soul_. I could care less _or more because I’m right on the fence_. The fact that “I could care less” covers every possible amount of caring _except_ the situation in which the speaker doesn’t care at all, which is what they’re trying to convey, makes “I could care less” absolutely meaningless. Folks that insist “I could care less” is some witty, sarcastic saying are merely covering their asses. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/18 "2014-08-27T14:24:27Z")
When I was younger I assumed it was a humorous slant on “I couldn’t care less”. I could care less theoretically, but my level of caring is so low I can’t be bothered to actually care less. In reality, it’s simply negation by association. The phrase stopped being analyzed as separate parts but as a single concept and the negatory aspect of the not was applied to the entire phrase. The not ended up getting deleted through lack of emphasis but the phrase retains its negatory sense. Same thing is true with “I couldn’t/could give a damn.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/19 "2014-08-27T15:20:50Z")
Sarcasm uses tone of voice to reverse the meaning of the literal words. In the extreme case it becomes a joke unto itself, like the example of a double negative meaning a positive being “yeah, right.” Clearly the original was “I couldn’t care less.” At some point people started using it sarcastically and saying the equivalent of “yeah, right, I could care less,” with every clause being a sarcastic “who cares?” But as people have correctly said, idiom has its own rules. Idiom does not need to make literal sense. It does not need to conform with grammar. It has a life of its own and must be accepted for what it’s intended to mean, not what the words separately might mean in a dictionary. “I could care less” is an idiom. It is completely correct and proper when used as intended. Sorry, pedants. This seems to be another example of your knowing everything about English except how it actually works. Complaining about “I could care less” is a giant red flag. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622/20 "2014-08-27T15:27:35Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Sarcasm uses tone of voice to reverse the meaning of the literal words. In the extreme case it becomes a joke unto itself, like the example of a double negative meaning a positive being “yeah, right.” > > Clearly the original was “I couldn’t care less.” At some point people started using it sarcastically and saying the equivalent of “yeah, right, I could care less,” with every clause being a sarcastic “who cares?” > > But as people have correctly said, idiom has its own rules. Idiom does not need to make literal sense. It does not need to conform with grammar. It has a life of its own and must be accepted for what it’s intended to mean, not what the words separately might mean in a dictionary. > > “I could care less” is an idiom. It is completely correct and proper when used as intended. > > Sorry, pedants. This seems to be another example of your knowing everything about English except how it actually works. Complaining about “I could care less” is a giant red flag. Exactly. It’s just like any number of other idiomatic phrases that have evolved into forms that no longer make literal sense. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-could-care-less/696622.md?page=2)