"Do What?"

[Lee]

In Texas (and most of the South) I hear people ask: "do what?" when they wish someone to repeat what was just said (regardless of whether they think they were ask to "do something or not)... is this common elsewhere?

Another pet peeve is when people say "I could care less" ... when what they really mean is " I could not care less".

I am eager to hear your comments.

Lee

[Bailey]

I say that, no telling where I picked it up.

mark

[Brazilian dude]

It reminds me of the Mexican mande, which I found quite odd when I first heard it. Mande (send) you what?

Brazilian dude

[AdoAnnie]

"Do What?" can be a request to repeat spoken words, but where I am from, Texas Gulf Coast, the phrase is much more often used to express unexpected negative reaction to something that has been heard, seen or read.

As in:
Note on Bulletin Board
As of next week all workers will be expected to skip lunch and work through their breaks without compensation.

Reader's reaction with shocked facial expression and body language with a voice tone of utter disbelief

"Do WHAT?!?!?"

[tcward]

The Colombian who works in my office often uses the expression "¿Cómo?"... which I have imagined, each time I hear it, as his way of saying "What?", although I know it isn't the meaning of the word...

-Tim

[Brazilian dude]

Yeah, I think ¿Cómo? is universally used. In Portuguese we also say Como?. It literally translates as how.

Brazilian dude

[tcward]

LOL... I guess "How?" is closer to "Huh?" than it is to "What?"

-Tim

[Perry]

"Do what?" is just as often "huh? as it is "say again". Another form of "do what" is "come again", where the meaning is always "say that again".

I think that there is a nuance in the difference between "I could care less" and "I couldn't care less". The former implies that it would be possible to care less, but it isn't worth the effort of trying to care less. The later is less sarcastic and more emphatically absolute.

In the North, "I don't care to do _______", intends to convey a dislike for whatever that action is. In the South (at least in Western North Carolina) the same phrase is used to say that "it wouldn't bother me if I had to do _____".

[Stargzer]

. . .
Another pet peeve is when people say "I could care less" ... when what they really mean is " I could not care less".

I am eager to hear your comments.

Lee

They could care less if they cared enough to put in the effort to do so . . .

[Lee]

. . .
Another pet peeve is when people say "I could care less" ... when what they really mean is " I could not care less".

I am eager to hear your comments.

Lee

They could care less if they cared enough to put in the effort to do so . . .

Well .... okay then ....

Lee

[Stargzer]

Well .... okay then ....

Lee

Cheer up!

[sluggo]

In Texas (and most of the South) I hear people ask: "do what?" when they wish someone to repeat what was just said (regardless of whether they think they were ask to "do something or not)... is this common elsewhere?

Another pet peeve is when people say "I could care less" ... when what they really mean is " I could not care less".

I am eager to hear your comments.

Lee

I don't get to Texas much but I do hear "do what?" here and there as request for repitition, I guess around the South. Then I had a teacher in grade school who, when she didn't hear you, would say, "Well?". Always sounded like "well? are you going to repeat that or what? I'm waiting!" Both are a bit offputting.

I couldn't agree more about "could care less" meaning just the opposite. Linguistic poison. Drives me nuts. Maybe I should say I could agree more, to mean I couldn't. I get Perry's point about nuanced sarcasm but it just doesn't seem that those who use 'could care less' have enough awareness of their own speech to engage in nuanced sarcasm. They prolly couldn't care less.

And I'll throw in a side of French "comment?" to go with Perry's 'como' (OK it wasn't Perry. I'm stretching.....)

[Perry]

I can croon, but it doesn't come through on this bulletin board.