I Could Care Less

Let's start with the most controversial entry on the list, which is also maybe the most common "I Could Care Less", indicating that you are not fond of somebody or someone at all. However, the correct phrase is I couldn't care less. As you have no interest, it is impossible for your care to go any lower. But in case you say you could care less, then it would turn out that you do care to some extent at the moment.

Needless to say, some people get furious over this as the phrase is used incorrectly. Anyway, the words "could" and "couldn't" have the opposite meanings, so it is impossible to use them in the same way. In the past, there are some cases of using "I Could Care Less" as "I Couldn't Care Less".

In a 1840 edition of "London’s Morning Post", it wrote “It is impossible that he could care less.” Moreover, Dundee Courier mentioned “His bearing towards male acquaintances, of whom he knew little or nothing and could care less…”.

Via those examples, the expression is used correctly because the negative is present in another part of the sentence. This not only demonstrates the longevity of the idiom could care less but also suggests the possible antecedents of this alternate spelling. Even though the saying is still illogical without the negation, it has become so widely used in everyday speech and is therefore unlikely to disappear any time soon.