12

I'm used to using "giving a damn" in a negative sense. Merriam-Webster defines the phrase as meaning:

give a damn: to care at all about someone or something —used in negative statements —.

So, easy examples include:

  • He doesn't give a damn what people think about him.

  • Nobody gives a damn about us.

  • I don't want to hear about her problems. I just don't give a damn.

  • They don't seem to care a damn about their future.


The following use of the phrase (widespread in the US I think) is confusing to my English ears. The context suggests (to me) that she doesn't care, but the affirmative usage suggests (at least to me) that she does?

She was middle-school teacher, and her husband was a firefighter. She could give a damn about Edmund Burke and the New York Post. She was not a crunchy con, and she found her brother annoying.

— Rod Dreather's Monastic Vision by Joshua Rothman for the May 1st 2017 issue of The New Yorker, p. 46

ab2
  • 26,253
Dan
  • 17,948
  • 18
    Maybe it's along the same lines as the (awful) 'could care less' expression which actually means 'couldn't care less'. – marcellothearcane Aug 08 '17 at 20:36
  • 4
    "Could give a damn" definitely means "does not give a damn." – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 20:38
  • I think it's fair to say that 'give a damn' is a negative polarity item. However, there have been quite a few quirky uses of say 'Men who do give a damn'. In spite of this, I think this example is an unusual and confusing paraphrase of 'She could not give a damn'. But I think that contacting the author is the only way to make sure. Conjecture, so not qualifying as a proper 'answer'. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 08 '17 at 20:42
  • @Casey That's certainly not always the case. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 08 '17 at 20:43
  • 1
    @EdwinAshworth I have never heard "could give a damn" or its more profane cousin to mean anything else. And it's clear from context that that's what's meant here too. – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 20:44
  • @marcellothearcane Excellent Parallel. I knew there was one around, but couldn't find it in my mind mausoleum. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 08 '17 at 20:53
  • 2
    @Casey what about 'if you could give a damn about it, it wouldn't happen!' - certainly not idiomatic, but arguably not the same as 'couldn't give a damn'. – marcellothearcane Aug 08 '17 at 21:00
  • @EdwinAshworth here's an interesting video about the origin of both phrases: https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/could-care-less-or-couldnt-care-less It turns out both were legitimate at one point. – marcellothearcane Aug 08 '17 at 21:02
  • @marcellothearcane The logic of the two phrases is actually not the same, because of the missing adverb. "I could give a damn" logically implies "I do not give a damn" in the same way "I could speak Spanish if I paid more attention in the classes I took" implies that I do not speak Spanish. – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 22:10
  • 1
    @marcellothearcane - interesting video. Her first example - "...no-one could care less than I..." uses the affirmative version but in a comparative, negative context that disguises its negative sense. Her second example uses the (to me) familiar negative version "...couldn't care less (even) if he wanted to..." but the context serves to render the phrase (surprisingly) affirmative. So, for me, the video demonstrates how the phrase should be used carefully, but it does not explain to me whether the OP usage means she cares or not. – Dan Aug 08 '17 at 22:15
  • 1
    @Tonepoet - thanks for the formatting. Do you really think 'damn' is so beyond the pale?! – Dan Aug 08 '17 at 23:49
  • 6
    @TonePoet I don't think there's any policy that bars "damn" in titles, especially on EL&U when in context. This seems like an excessive edit to someone else's post IMHO – RaceYouAnytime Aug 08 '17 at 23:51
  • @RaceYouAnytime and Dan At least one sense of the word Damn is marked as "offensive" in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary and there is a corporately imposed policy against offensive language in the titles which is not subject to debate, even for consideration on English Language & Usage's local meta. Please keep in mind that the T.O.S. allows participation by anybody from the ages of 13 and older though, and that some people are browsing this at work . – Tonepoet Aug 09 '17 at 00:07
  • 4
    @TonePoet well there are ten other questions with damn in the title. I just think editing other users' new post titles should be done judiciously. – RaceYouAnytime Aug 09 '17 at 00:17
  • 2
    13 year olds have heard a lot worse. The ’D’ word was allowed on prime time TV as far back as 1965 on ’Leave it to Beaver’. I don’t think it’s in the offensive word category that SE is concerned about. – Jim Aug 09 '17 at 06:58
  • 1
    @Dan yes, the video shows how both 'could care less' and 'couldn't care less' evolved, and both make sense in their context. The former has been taken out of context to mean the latter, so I was extrapolating to your example – marcellothearcane Aug 09 '17 at 07:22
  • That short quotation is not enough to establish context. Can you give a link to the source or add more previous sentences? Also, not the possibility that the writer made a mistake. – Mitch Aug 09 '17 at 12:02
  • Reading the original context of that sentence and understanding the cultural context, the writer is saying that 'she' does not care much for 'Edmund Burke and the New York Post'. So not using 'not' seems to be contrary to the most common usage of 'don't give a damn'. – Mitch Aug 09 '17 at 15:36
  • @Mitch - yes, I agree. All I am interested to understand is how someone can say what she says and it means what we are agreeing she means to say! – Dan Aug 09 '17 at 15:44
  • @Dan Exactly how people say things is not always a logical construction from axioms. Sometimes using two negation words in a sentence means a negative, other times they cancel out leaving a positive. Sometimes a word means one thing, sometimes the opposite e.g. "Use the axe to cleave the log into two'' vs "The child cleaved to his mother". That's just how language works sometimes. – Mitch Aug 09 '17 at 17:31
  • @Mitch - I can't help myself! I'm not out to prove anyone 'right' or 'wrong'. I simply would like to understand how this usage 'works' for those who use it. – Dan Aug 13 '17 at 00:15

1 Answers1

8

"give a damn" is defined as follows in the Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd edition:

give a damn (about somebody/something) (slang)

to be interested or involved He sent his son to parochial school because he believes that those schools give a damn.

Usage notes: also used with verbs like could and might to mean someone is not concerned about something: A significant portion of kids in class could give a damn.

Some of the other comments call the use of the phrase "could give a damn" to mean "does not give a damn" incorrect and have made analogy to "I couldn't care less" ("damn" might also be replaced by "rat's ass", "shit", or "fuck", incidentally). Logically, I don't think this phrase is truly analogous. It works because "could" (in the present) points to counterfactual situations -- consider the difference between "I can speak Spanish" and "I could speak Spanish if I would have paid more attention in Mr. Garcia's class." † Or consider the difference between answering an invitation "Yes, I can go skiing on Saturday" and "I could go skiing on Saturday, but that place is too expensive" -- you can't really switch "can" and "could" in these examples.

With that said, I think it would be helpful to pull up some actual examples to prove that this phrase is far and away most commonly used to imply the negative (i.e., to not care). I just searched Google News; the examples seem to skew toward colorful and opinionated rants. That's not too surprising considering the phrase, so I hope you won't read too much into the choice of stories to take these from.

“I did not feel any better. I didn’t feel any passion from him,” Dash, a frequent Fox News contributor, went on. “I felt like he could give a shit [...]"

Talking Points Memo, "Fox News Host: Obama ‘Could Give A Shit’ About The Threat Of Terrorism"

"I have never voted," Knight told the audience. "I'm not here to represent the Republican party. Quite frankly, I could give a damn about the Republicans. And on the other hand I don't give a damn about the Democrats, either."

Real Clear Politics, "Bobby Knight at Trump Rally: I Could Give a Damn About Republicans or Democrats, 'At Heart He's A Great American'"

The person going to this game is the type that gets up at seven in the morning to watch Arsenal vs. Chelsea at Fado in Center City Philadelphia. He probably has a Theo Walcott jersey that he also wears to the noon pickup game at YSC Sports. This guy is a diehard soccer fan who could give a rat's ass about the Philadelphia Union and probably thinks that "the MLS sucks."

That's the guy. He comes to the Tuesday night futsal game wearing a Barcelona tracksuit, claims to be a striker, then whiffs on his first shot attempt from five yards out.

Philly Voice, "Miami's 'El Clasico' a blatant cash grab and everything that's wrong with American soccer"

For 10 years, I have carried that document in my briefcase, waiting for just one liberal in the mainstream media to ask me about it. That has never happened. It’s like the liberals consigned that document to the howling winds of Siberia. They could give a damn about that document, just as they could give a damn when Obama in September 2009 sold out Poland to Putin. They only care now, when the Russians might have sold out their Hillary.

The Spectator, "When Liberal Doves Become Russia Hawks"

Since the Edinburgh-bred singer is coming off her first stretch of tour dates in a while, her voice is still a bit raw, and she keeps cracking herself up into coughing fits. She is 49, but “could give a flying fuck” about age and appearances, and tends to go for men who value intelligence over beauty. “But it’s easy for me to say that,” she notes. “I wasn’t born with a typical cliche of a female body—didn’t have the big tits, didn’t have the huge arse, wasn’t curvy. So I’ve never really relied on my body.” She shrugs and flicks a piece of salmon into her mouth with her chopsticks. “Who cares?”

Vice, "Shirley Manson Asked Me Out for Sushi for Some Reason"

By contrast, I could not find any examples of the phrase meaning "to care."

† "had paid" is the more standard way to say this but it seems stilted to me in this example.

Community
  • 1
Casey
  • 2,610
  • 18
  • 21
  • @Dan It means the opposite though. She doesn't care about looks because she doesn't have a typically feminine body, and prefers intelligent partners over sexy ones. – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 23:03
  • Great examples. Thank you! The second one down - "... I could give a damn about the Republicans. And on the other hand I don't give a damn about the Democrats, either..." - shows what a state of chaos there is with this phrase: the author uses both versions to mean the same thing! For +1 please can you spell out to me how it is that "...could give a flying fuck..." (for example) comes to mean, actually, that she doesn't care about her age, appearance... . – Dan Aug 08 '17 at 23:13
  • @Dan No, because he is only interested in European clubs. – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 23:13
  • Sorry. My mistake. A typo. You're right. I've deleted and rewritten my comment to try to stay clear! Let's move to your 'rat's ass' example! First off, to be clear, does the guy care about the Philadelphia Union? – – Dan Aug 08 '17 at 23:14
  • OK. So, is 'giving a rat's ass' as much as he cares? When saying this it is understood (but unwritten/unspoken) that he cares not more than a rat's ass for the Philadelphia Union (which is to say, not at all). – Dan Aug 08 '17 at 23:18
  • @Dan I don't think I would parse it that way, because any of these examples would mean the same thing if you replaced "could" with "doesn't" or "don't." – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 23:22
  • OK. So how do you parse 'could' in this context? – Dan Aug 08 '17 at 23:26
  • @Dan As I said in the first paragraph, I see it as being used for its counterfactual nature. If you say you "could" do something in the present, it follows that you do not do it. – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 23:28
  • Thanks. I think I get it, although it jars because, in the case of Mr Garcia for example, I would usually say "I might/could HAVE SPOKEN Spanish if I HAD paid attention...". I find it hard to hear the unspoken second half of the sentence beginning with 'if' when there is only 'could'. Would you say it was reasonable to spell out the OP example as "She could/might have given a damn about Edmund Burke if she had shared her brother's political passions" (or something like that). – Dan Aug 08 '17 at 23:43
  • @Dan I edited that part of the answer a bit; maybe you'll now find it more convincing. – Casey Aug 08 '17 at 23:50
  • Enough! It was never in doubt to me that the usage is negative. The logic of this negative sense is what is baffling. I'm clearer now, though it's not a usage I reckon I'll be using. But +1 for helping me understand ;-) – Dan Aug 09 '17 at 00:01