What is this "least worst"?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known use of the compounded adjective “least worst” was in mid 1700s. I find it unexciting that its use has sharply risen in the last few years, after remaining dormant for almost 250 years.

Most dictionaries define least worst as the best out of a group, which are all undesirable, or of poor quality. Though contextually different, least worst is close to its cousin “lesser evil”.

It is not a double adjective, if you’re still thinking about “least” as smallest in size or amount. Least, in least worst, is used as an adverb, and that technicality helps all of us, in feeling smug about English grammar not being debased. One can then quickly move on to other similar compounded adjectives like infinitely small.

The lack of my excitement about least worst, comes from my childhood. If you had grown up in a small town of India in the 1970s and the 1980s, you can appreciate that only a few things were drummed into your head as relentlessly as least worst. Given the “infinitely small” family net worth then, every spending decision was based on the concept of least worst during haggling. That financial victory, at least in my emotions, always made the poorer choice “taste” better. As my sophistication matured, I chose to fast on “things”, to get what I wanted (“most best”), albeit delayed or for a shorter time. If you were my parent, you would say, it’s all in my mind – a least worst choice could actually be most best. And given the next less worse thing that was drummed into me, I would agree that parents are always right.

Fast forward many years, for me personally, this least worst does not seem to be going anywhere, even after having lived in the UK for more than fifteen years. On the contrary, least worst is catching up, on all of us actually. Here is a sample of my laundry list of least worst, that I would argue applies equally well in many countries, if not all:

1.?????? Who did you vote for? This usually leads to a polarised fight with no decency. Toss of a coin, no no. Least worst obviously.

2.?????? Where did you choose to live? And while deciding did you consider schools, or roads, or crime, or ..? Least worst of course. What is rather troublesome is that I can’t seem to find a locality where least worst of all of them (schools, roads, crime, ..) intersect. It’s all in my mind.

3.?????? What happened to your mortgage? Lesser said the better, as this evokes a collective discourse on how economy should be run.

4.?????? ..

Language reflects the society, as they say, and this is probably the explanation for the ascendancy of the compounded adjective least worst. Life is full of choices, I would like to think; eh, what a naivete have I turned out to be. Choose the least worst and get on with life, as this too shall pass.