I Could Care Less

Or could you? From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Golden Plunger Awards on its incorrect usage:

This is an easy mistake to make. The correct phrase, of course, is "couldn't care less" - as in, "I don't care at all, so it wouldn't be possible for me to care any less about this." But over the years, that's morphed into a new phrase (with the same meaning), and even though the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage criticized the change in 1975, saying it was "an ignorant debasement of language," "could care less" seems to be around to stay.

Language historian say "couldn't care less" was originally a British phrase that became popular in the Untied States in the 1950s. "Could care less" appeared about a decade later. No one knows exactly why the incorrect form came into being, since it doesn't make sense. But the phrase has stuck, and a lot of grammarians care very much that it's not being used correctly. (Regular people, of course, couldn't care less.)

See other commonly misused words and phrases here.

On, What is Hypocrisy Anyway?

I just read a fascinating post by the fascinating Joe Carter. Though the article is about much more, the part I found most interesting was his calling out of the media on their castigating of 'hypocrites' when, in fact, they don't actually know what that word means (nor do I, I guess). He writes,

The American Heritage Dictionary defines hypocrisy as “The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.” The British literary critic William Hazlitt once explained, “He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves”

The 'hypocrite' in question is Gov. Sanford. What most media critics are bothered by is not the fact that he committed sexual immorality but that he committed treasonous 'hypocrisy.' Or, they would say, he did exactly what he condemns. Carter's point is that one can actually hold a belief and still act outside that belief and not be a hypocrite. So Sanford, though 'morally inconsistent,' is not hypocritical because he still believes that sexual immorality is sinful. If he continued to promulgate that idea that sexual immorality is sinful, while at the same time disbelieving it, then he would be a hypocrite (one's actions do often belie your actual beliefs).

Exit question: How then did Jesus use 'hypocrite' with respect to the Pharisees?