Remix clone Hacker News

The meaning is likely understood/inferred by many if not most, sure.

It's still a "contresens" (can't find the right word in English, literally counter to its meaning), and should absolutely be avoided for clarity.

Let's not just say that it's alright

▲

sunshowers 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's alright. Human languages aren't really logically tight the way computer languages are.

An example that goes completely unremarked on is "near miss", which logically means something that came close to missing but actually hit, and yet in idiomatic use means the opposite. People also get upset at "literally" to mean "figuratively", another one I find strange because it's an intensifier.

Clarity matters more in formal writing, and "couldn't care less" isn't particularly formal in any case.

▲

saltcured 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I wouldn't put these in the same category. The inversion of "could care less" meaning "couldn't care less" or "unloose" meaning "loose" are similar.

But "near miss" is more a parsing ambiguity, if not a mere disagreement about grammar. People who think it is illogical seem to assume it is "nearly missing". But in actual usage it is more that "near miss" is like a "narrow miss" and a "far miss" is like a "wide miss", all encoding distance to the implied target/hit zone.

▲

sheepdestroyer 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I did use literally correctly.

And I can't agree with you. As a non native speaker, I deeply appreciate people making an effort to use language correctly to transmit information. I call that being mindfull of your interlocutors.

	▲	sunshowers 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm also a non-native (though near-native) speaker and writer. I grew up reading a lot of English but not speaking much of it.

▲

synecdoche 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In a way there’s nothing wrong with ”near miss”. It’s a miss not far from the target. Still a miss.

▲

SoftTalker 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

George Carlin had a bit about “near miss” and other illogical phrasings.

▲

navbaker 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It is alright. Most people can figure out from context clues what the writer means and the only thing being pedantic and demanding about other peoples’ language does is make them REALLY not want to do what you’re saying.

▲

cenamus 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Sounds vaguely similar to Jesperson's cycle and double negatives, the "couldn't care less" idioms. And "absolutely avoided for clarity" is a bit harsh, language is by its nature imprecise and telling people how to speak has (thankfully) almost never worked to avert language change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jespersen%27s_cycle