And yet we tend not to see them used in press but still understand the context.

Weird huh?

I wouldn’t know about that. I don’t read the press, I read books.

I’d wager it’s pretty common in editorial content rather than in “news” reports. Perhaps that’s the difference, there’s less call for emphasis when you’re simply stating facts (or “facts”) rather than say telling a story or communicating an anecdote.

I’d wager it’s pretty common in editorial content rather than in “news” reports.

🤨

No, the phrase is sarcasm, it should read, “I could care less, but I’d struggle to” (or words to that effect) so it’s correct, and as Americans understand the etymology, everyone understands the shortcut.

I could type a full response but I’m just going with, no, that’s not the original phrase and you’re wrong. Took all of five second on Google to show your longer version doesn’t exist.

your longer version doesn’t exist.

which is why…

(or words to that effect)

It’s been a minute.

Yeah, No.

Why did people start saying that and what does it mean?

Took all of five second on Google to show your longer version doesn’t exist.

It does in a few instances (like “I know not and could care less”), but it’s always half of a quote and it is something of a leap to suggest that this is a well-known etymology. It isn’t, it is at best a misquote and really just wrong.

CountZeroFull Member
Using “yourself” instead of “you”, eg “I rang reception to sell you something and they said I should contact yourself.”

Or “When would be good time to set up a meeting with yourself.”
I couldn’t help but read that in my head with an Irish accent. To the poster, yerself wouldn’t be across the water now, would you?

No, although I did work in Belfast for a while about 15 years ago. 🙂

Referring to 17th of March as ‘St Patty’s day’

Finding out that ‘refute’ is now a synonym of ‘rebut’ in the dictionary

(taking a deep breath).  I’ve always considered those two to be synonyms but that refute also has become a synonym for deny/reject.

🤔

Rule one.

(Who decides what constitutes “being a dick”?)

 it is something of a leap to suggest that this is a well-known etymology.

It’s a North Americanism, to my wife (a Canadian) the phrase is “I could care less”, she understands it’s origin and meaning just fine. That it winds up folks on this side of the Atlantic becasue they don’t, is just life’s rich tapestry I guess. It’s not the worst thing that they do to English IMO.

Good piece of kit?
Nice piece of kit?
Toy – when referring to a very expensive car/bike/bicycle/boat/van?

when we got our Mac book I was on here moaning that you didn’t get all your website icons on the front page like a normal laptop.
An apple fan on here took me to task and explained that it was a “serious bit of kit”
It’s been known as the “SBK” ever since.

I’ve always considered those two to be synonyms

So have I, They are at least ‘close’ in meaning although not identical. Refute, rebuke, rebut; all words used to oppose an argument, didn’t realise that it was at all controversial.

People who ask, ‘can I ask.’ Just ask the **** question you want to ask, don’t ask for permission to ask. Morons

‘Turn key solution’ boils my urine also.

It’s a North Americanism, to my wife (a Canadian) the phrase is “I could care less”, she understands it’s origin and meaning just fine.

The Miriam-Webster article on the phrase is interesting. It notes that the ‘could’ formulation is obviously incorrect, and is likely to be a corruption of the ‘couldn’t’  construction, but then it says:

We understand why could care less sticks in your craw: it appears to mean something rather opposed to what it purports to mean. The person who says “I could care less” is, on the face of it, stating “Yes, it would be possible for me to care less deeply about this matter than I do, and therefore I am betraying some unspecified degree of care.” But if you are the kind of person who cries out against this abomination we must warn you that people who go through life expecting informal variant idioms in English to behave logically are setting themselves up for a lifetime of hurt.

Both could and couldn’t care less are informal, and so you are unlikely to use either one in formal writing. If you have need of using it in some other context, and would like to avoid alienating some portion of your audience you should stick with couldn’t care less. And if you can’t get past some people continuing to use could care less, and the fact that there’s nothing you can do about it, you may console yourself with the notion that at least they are not saying “I could care fewer.

So I suppose we’ll have to live with it, but it certainly deserves a place in the other thread as its sheer idiocy does make me disproportionately cross.

“Rebuke” doesn’t mean anything like to contradict an argument.

Anyway, can anyone refute my case against Rule 1? If not, then it stands. (I was expecting to be rebuked, though not for it to be rebutted.)

“Rebuke” doesn’t mean anything like to contradict an argument.

Rebuke means (amongst other things) to criticize. You can clearly oppose an argument by criticizing it.

Although, that’s the beauty of Synonyms, they’re alike, close, similar, they don’t have to be identical, like happy and content, close and shut. It should be celebrated that we have access to language like this.

It’s not a synonym. You don’t rebuke an argument. You rebuke a person.

Rebuke means (amongst other things) to criticize

Well yes, but not to criticise an argument. I’ll accept that refute and rebut are close enough to be almost always interchangeable, but not rebuke.

Rule one.

(Who decides what constitutes “being a dick”?)

Ones self. Or oneself, I’m not really sure of the difference between the two…

You rebuke a person.

You know that it can be a verb and a noun, right?

“The judge publicly rebuked the jury”

also

“He hadn’t meant it as a rebuke, but to Neil it sounded just like one”

People make arguments, you can issue a “stinging rebuke” to them about what they’ve said…In other words, to oppose their argument.

Not a lifetime ban – but very annoying: “Please fill out the form” or “Please fill out the box”.
No, one fills IN the box, form or other.

I’m thinking of setting up my business as a ‘bespoke’, ‘artisan’ curtain/soft furnishing maker :o)

Nope, to rebuke is to express ‘sharp disapproval or criticism of (someone) because of their behaviour or actions’ not their thoughts. You wouldn’t start an essay with ‘Milton Friedman is a right ****’ even if it’s true.

“she understands it’s origin”

Its origin.  The possessive of it is its, not it’s.  It’s is a shortened form of it is, it was, it has.

Can I help you

“stinging rebuke” to them about what they’ve said…In other words, to oppose their argument.

other words which are not rebuke. If you don’t believe everyone here on usage check a dictionary.

And I still haven’t had that argument about rule 1…

Wholesome – yuk. Seems to be associated with a rise in Youtube/Facebook “shorts” of something nice happening.

Also anyone suggesting they were “today years old” when they learnt something new. Die.

Also anyone suggesting they were “today years old” when they learnt something new. Die.

🙂 🙂 🙂

I’d never actually heard that one, so thanks. Seems a moderate response…

People who ask, ‘can I ask.’ Just ask the **** question you want to ask, don’t ask for permission to ask.

Back when I worked in an office, I jokingly trained this out of the engineers. “Can I ask a question?” You just did. Do you want to ask another?

One took to asking me, “can I ask two questions?” 😁 Sure, what’s your second?

The Miriam-Webster article on the phrase is interesting.

I do not recognise M-W as an authority on the English language.

I do not recognise M-W as an authority on the English language.

Which is an entirely reasonable position to take. However, the phrase in question is not an English language phrase, it’s American, and M-W are an authority on the American language – and even they say it’s wrong.

Traffic “chaos” when pictures of the chaos show lines of neatly queueing drivers.  That’s not chaos.

Live Laugh Love

“…made from cheese” unless they are talking about cheese.

INRÂTS, obvs, but I hope USE CASE is in here somewhere.

Agile – see post below this and ban them now!

“Suella Braverman”. Just ignore it, and hopefully it’ll go away.

“Picked up” – as in “I picked up a [insert very expensive item]” as though it was just a potato or a bag of crisps.

I hope USE CASE is in here somewhere.

Nothing wrong with Use Case in the proper context. It is a defined technique for modelling system behaviour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_case