"Non-plussed"

[jack]

I'm definitely starting to be left behind by language change :) Apparently "non-plussed" reversed in meaning a few months ago.

Comments

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Maybe originally, but mostly I see it from people who are not very clever and fairly clearly just have some vague, muddled idea that 'less' means 'not very much' so it makes sense that "I could care less" means "I don't really care."

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Or rather, I think that's a very accurate description of why the phrase is used that way, and why it annoys me, but that I can't really blame people for it: I think what you hear other people use probably has as much affect on whether you use "could care less" as whether you're intelligent or inclined to examine language carefully.