What's the deal with the phrase "could care less"?
Whilst growing up, I've always known people (parents etc) to use the phrase "couldn't care less", but I've also come across people who use the phrase "could care less" to mean the same thing (that is, "I do not care at all about that").
To me "couldn't care less" seems a lot more logical. If I couldn't care less about something, that implies I do not care about it at all. In contrast to this, to my mind the phrase "could care less" seems to indicate "I do care about this to some degree at least", but that's definitely not the meaning intended.
What's going on here? Is my (logical) analysis correct or in error?
Best Answer
I've heard it said that "could care less" is meant to be ironic, but I think this is just justification for the bastardisation of an English phrase.
Here we go (from World Wide Words):