When Worse Comes to Worst...

It occurred to me today, as it has occasionally, that the expression "if worse comes to worst" (as I usually think of it) would also make sense in some other similar-sounding variants.

According to Ben Zimmer in the NYT "On language" column (2/4/2011):

The earliest version of the idiom [1596] is in the form “if the worst come to the worst,” complete with definite articles and a subjunctive form of the verb come. 

...

Move forward another couple of centuries [past Robinson Crusoe in 1719], and the more compact versions “if worst comes to worst” and “if worse comes to worst” battle for supremacy, especially in American English. For some language commentators, “if worse comes to worst” makes so much more sense that they assume it must have come first. 

In general, I understand the expression to mean "if the worst happens."  But here's how we might think of it in some different variations, which I've organized from most to least hits on a google phrase search:

• "worse comes to worst" (353k hits) might suggest "things are already bad, but if they become catastrophic..."
• "worst comes to worst" (285k) might suggest "if the worst we can imagine or plan for comes to pass..."
• "worse comes to worse" (169k) might suggest "things are already bad, but if they get even worse..." (to me, this feels a bit like "curiouser and curiouser")
• "worst comes to worse" (17k) might suggest "if things get even worse than the worst we can imagine or plan for..."

To my surprise, the google ngram viewer didn't come up with anything whatsoever for my own personal favorite variation (but by far the least popular) "worst comes to worse."

So I created an ngram chart of (1) worse comes to worse - blue, (2) worse comes to worst - red, and (3) worst comes to worst - green:

Interesting to see that the traditional/original version (green) has not only been overtaken by the "logical" version (red) starting in the late 1970's, but it is also losing ground relative to the much feebler version "worse comes to worse" (blue) and perhaps even heading for parity with it.

If I were to hazard a guess, I might suppose that "worse comes to worse" appeals to people who feel it is more "correct "to avoid hyperbole.

And one more ngram chart, showing "worst comes to the worst" against the top two contenders:

There are further iterations to explore, including "worst come to the worst" vs "worst comes. to the worst" -- the latter seems to have gained traction in 1858 and never looked back