Mark is a laid back person.
and
Mark is a lay back person.
i mean them to describe someone who is not proactive and who doesn't care enough, in a critical sense.
I googled both terms and the numbers of result of are both large. So, conventionally, are both terms acceptable in most contexts? Or do they basically mean different things in itself?
By the way, when I say a "large" number of results, I'm talking about millions of hits for lay back person.
Best Answer
Dittos to JR.
This borders on a comment as opposed to an answer, but "laid back" does not mean "not proactive and doesn't care enough", at least not in the negative sense that you appear to be thinking. Rather, it means "not easily excited or upset".
To an American, at least, saying someone is "laid back" is not a negative statement. Well, except in the sense that any statement about a person could be made negative by explicitly saying that the person does it too much or in inappropriate contexts. Like, yes, you could say, "Bob is just too laid back for this job". But you could also say, "Bob is too nice" or "Bob tries too hard to be fair", etc.
You seem to be thinking more of "passive", "apathetic", "uncaring", maybe "lazy".