Looking for etymology or information on the alternate meaning of “I don't care to X”

Question

Unless I'm mistaken, in most of the English speaking world, the phrase "I don't care to X" indicates that the speaker prefers not to do the particular activity. However, as I was reminded during a visit recently, in some parts of the southern US, it actually has another meaning that's roughly opposite. That is, that the speaker doesn't mind doing the activity. For example:

I don't care to get dirty.

would normally mean that the speaker doesn't like getting dirty, and would presumably try to avoid it. However, it was clear from context that the speaker meant that unlike others with whom she was comparing herself, she would be willing to participate in an activity that would get her quite dirty.

Does anyone have any information on the history of this particular meaning? Did both meanings come into existence simultaneously and one became non-standard or did one enter later? Are there other areas/dialects that use the alternate meaning? Any other information you happen to have would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I think it's just a corruption of "I don't care about getting dirty", similar to how "I could care less" is often said when the user obviously means "I couldn't care less."

Answer 2

So, we have (yet another) expression (such as “sanction”) with antonymous meanings. The antonymous meanings need not occur with equal probability. When the probability of one of the antonymous meanings is sufficiently low (from the reporter’s point of view – it might be quite high within a given locale), it is prone to be regarded as an anomaly when encountered. The case in point is analogous to the fact that “careless” can have the two (near-antonymous) meanings of “sloppy” and “without a worry”, the latter being a nearly archaic meaning.

Which of the two antonymous meanings is operative depends on what “to” binds to. The expression “care_to [raw infinitive]” is a softer way of saying “want [full_infinitive]” (for example: “Do you care to go to the carnival with me today?”), whereas “care [full_infinitive]” means “have a worry about [corresponding gerund]” (for example: “Do you care to get dirty?” means “Do you care about getting dirty?”).

Consider the following two passages:

“Get dirty? – I don’t care.”

“Get dirty? – I don’t care to.”

The first is unambiguous, but the second is ambiguous, depending on what “to” binds to. If folks in a region do not bind “to” to “care”, it can be confusing for visitors from the wider world where “to” DOES get bound to “care”.