Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
This is the most ridiculous error and it is everywhere…..I even heard “I Could Care Less” on an episode of Law and Order – uttered by an ADA….....
This has probably been addressed many times before in your forum but I’m a newcomer, so please don’t pounce on me too much…...
jennjessica
Offline
Welcome to the eggcorn website, jennjessica.
You’re correct in suspecting that the eggcorn you mentioned has been submitted a few times before, so we’ll certainly not pounce on you. Although it may not be so instructive in this case, one can run a word search by click on “Search” in the red menu band above. From there, you can run a search of single words. I typed the word “care” (without the quotes), and got three pages of results. From there, I noticed at least three other mentions of this eggcorn(?).
Ya know… I’ve never really given it much thought before, but I’m beginning to wonder just exactly how “I couldn’t care less” did evolve into “I could care less.” Most of the time people just mimic the way other people have said it, but someone had to make the silly mistake in the first place. So, how exactly did this originate?
Offline
If I had to make a guess, I would guess it came about as ironic usage, sort of along the lines of “Oh, like I really care!” I think people began using it ironically and the ironic usage became mainstream and the irony was lost, and now people use the two forms interchangeably.
Last edited by JonW719 (2008-01-25 17:54:38)
Feeling quite combobulated.
Offline