I could care less, yes, I think it's an Americanism. I grew up with it. Saying or hearing I couldn't care less sounds funny to me. The usage is not going away.

Personally, I agree with the theory that the seemingly odd usage was due to the cultural influence of Yiddish language irony/sarcasm on American pop culture. There aren't a lot of Yiddish speakers left alive but there were many in our cultural capital New York at a seminal time. But if you want to think we're just stupid and don't know what we're actually saying, we could care less.

As Liberman observed in a 2004 post at Language Log, “could care less” is not uniquely odd. Its pattern is familiar in other phrases like “I could give a dam_n” (and its ruder variants), and in the lyrics of Sammy Cahn’s 1940s classic, “I Should Care.” But whatever its sources — sarcasm, irony, Yiddish, or (as its detractors say) ignorance — “could care less” is snugly embedded in the American idiom. Yet the complaints keep rolling in.

http://www.word-dete...ould-care-less/

Well, I could care a lot less about your kind explanation, so thank you for that.

"England and America are two countries divided by a common language." - George Bernard Shaw

Professor Henry Higgins of 'My Fair Lady' (1964) has quite a bit to say on the British abuse of the language as well in the scripts opening scene.

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/my-fair-lady-script-transcript.html

For want of an iPad edit feature at that moment, 11:55:03 sideways in bed,

' care and less' was missing a 'space', so yes truncated. ) Or just idiomatic.

Jing was correct that there are two ways to say the same basic phrase,

and I did live in NYC for sometime and absorbed the yiddisher variation,

"I could care less" as well as the yankee one "I couldn't care less".

Ofcoursethefactitwasajokeseemstohavebeentotallylost.

Edited February 24, 201214 yr by animatic

Lack of transparency, conflict of interest, impropriety, sexual liaison?

Well as of a few minutes ago in the Nation, 3 Democrats are to be sued for discrediting and defaming the Prime Minister. So the shoe is on the other foot.

http://www.nationmul...t-30176249.html

Like Anwar, I hope they bring the mattress (or sofa in this case) to court as prove.