Does this drive you crazy, too?
80% of my dear friends and family misuse the word “literally”, some even saying it like they think they’re English, like “Lich-rally”.
That music is so loud, my ears are literally bleeding. Really? Your ears are bleeding? I think you should call a doctor.
It’s so cold, I’m literally freezing my ass off. Is that like, a new form of cryo-therapy?
Folks, no! It’s not “literal” unless it actually happened. Did you actually pee your pants laughing? I know that happens, but if you did, I’m guessing you wouldn’t tell us.
“No one knows the difference, so it doesn’t matter,” you tell yourself. Yes, they do! Lots of people are noticing. And they’re thinking, “No you did not actually have smoke coming out of your ears.”
Luckily, Cooper Fleishman over at HyperVocal is on it, offering us 13 famous people who don’t know what literally means. Enjoy his graphics below, and then visit HyperVocal for more.
literally.barelyfitz.com
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literally.barelyfitz.com
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Want more?
“lit·er·al·ly/ˈlitərəlē/
Adverb:
In a literal manner or sense; exactly: “the driver took it literally when asked to go straight over the traffic circle”.
Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.”
It’s actually correct now though, vernacular changes over time. If we only accepted “academic” definitions and grammar etc. and not what people actually speak, we’d still be using Shakespearian English. This kind of stuff stinks of intellectual elitism to me.
English is alreadt a messed up la.guage anyway
It is not actually correct now. Some vernacular changes are too stupid to accept, literally being one of them. If the definition is the opposite of some common usage, the usage should not be accepted just to weaken the definition.
It ain’t the “overuse” of it, it’s the darn, iggorant misuse of it. People don’t listen to themselves…arg.
Sometimes it’s overuse, too. Even when they’re using it right, they use it too much. “I literally had to carry all five bags of groceries in by myself” or “I literally forgot to return the library books for two months.” Though I did not really explain that in detail in the piece. I did, however, touch on “Lich-rally” which, if you’re American and not Katharine Hepburn, you are not allowed to say.
There are a fair number of words that are overused or in some cases misused. I believe it is a sign of the times of the internet where people see others use them and feel they must use them as well.
The word that I see overused and misused most often is misogynst , it seems if you aren’t 100% in agreement with a womans issue, you are misogynst, of course misogynst is supposed to mean you hate women, it has come to mean so much less than that now to some people
While the word is frustratingly overused in this sense, the linguistic descriptivists over at Merriam Webster inform me that it is a perfectly cromulent use of the term, with a good historical and literary pedigree – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_VHZq_7eU.
I cannot believe cromulent is a real word and has nothing to do with pastry.
Justin, your pastry comment made me laugh so hard, I…well, I almost…um, oh yeah, never mind.
But yes, this is one of my minor pet peeves, falling not too far behind the habit of using “basically” in every sentence.
Good post Joanna
Alastair’s comments are often my favorites. Justin punctuated the moment perfectly!