A player on Big Brother said that both her parents ran track and so she was “literally born on the track”. Unless your mother went into labour on the track and gave birth right there, you were not literally born on the track!
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You said this makes you “irrationally angry” and then went on to explain a rationale behind why it makes you angry. I just want to note that’s pretty much the same misuse of a term as the one you’re complaining about.
They can have rational reasons for their anger but be aware of the fact that they needn’t be quite as angry as they are, that the extent of their anger is irrational. The two things are unrelated.
But they didn’t say they were “literally” irrationally angry
inb4 words change meaning over time
Even if I accept words change meaning, what does literally mean now? What are people trying to convey when they say it? The only slightly practical thing it does is add emphasis. It’s a useless filler word.
You answered your own, like, question.
They’re doing what most people do: copying what they see other people say, particularly people they wish to emulate in some way.
Really, it’s fine. Context makes it clear when we literally mean “literally” literally.
I was playing a video game with a buddy recently. I was in the middle of a flank and he said he was out of ammo. I said “literally 0 bullets?” And he said “yep literally 0”. I aborted my flank to run back and give him some ammo but got killed as I ran back. Just then, he starts shooting.
I don’t think context makes the word “literally” clear. We ruined the word and now we need a new one to establish we’re not exaggerating.
Thank you for the example. Indeed, the context did not make that clear.
That makes me wonder what he thought he was saying. I infer something like “very few”. Or he genuinely though he had no bullets left and was wrong. I’d say that second case seems highly unlikely, but it wouldn’t totally shock me.
I wonder whether the word is the issue or the speaker’s intent: if the speaker insists in exaggerating, then no word they use is going to convey that they aren’t exaggerating. I wouldn’t think them likely to use any word to convey that they aren’t exaggerating, because they are. I think of it like a person bent on sarcasm: you simply need to detect it somehow, then filter every word accordingly.
That wouldn’t make the word “literally” literally ruined, but might instead merely indicate that we can’t rely on it as a safeword against exaggeration. 🤷
Really, it’s fine. Context makes it clear when we literally mean “literally” literally.
It literally doesn’t. The whole point of “literally” is to establish that context.
That used to be the point of it. Over time the added impact that using it out of place gives to hyperbole has changed that point until it is necessary for enough context to exist to make clear that it is used in it’s original manner.
It’ll probably happen eventually to anything that replaces the world as well, sort of like how things like swear words and euphemisms lose their impact from overuse and end up getting replaced only to have the same happen again. At some level a quick way of saying “this is actually true” serves as an easy source of exaggeration if used somewhere where it clearly can’t be so, and as soon as someone does that, the meaning starts being dependant on context.
Which is only so bad because the purpose of the word itself is to provide context. It literally means “this is not a euphemism”, and the only reason to use it in the first place is if the existing context would lead one to assume it was.
When you need to give extra context and additional words to clarify an ambiguous “literally”, you’ve robbed the word of its original meaning. It can no longer fulfill that purpose. It would literally be more efficient to just not use it at all, and just skip straight to whatever you were going to say to clarify the context. The meaning has been stolen.
I don’t remember the last time someone used the word “literally” and I couldn’t tell whether they meant it in the classic sense or in the modern sense, either as an intensifier or as filler. If you do, then I’d genuinely like to learn about that, because I don’t think I could imagine such a scenario. I might lack imagination or I might not be around people who use the word often enough to judge.
I genuinely believe you overstate the matter, especially in claiming that the word had been robbed of its previous meaning. I still use the word exclusively with its classic meaning and I never see confused faces when I do. 🤷 (That’s not any kind of proof, but merely a reason for my current position on this.)
Don’t ask me, I just try my very best not to be annoyed at this stuff :)
Yes, I think it’s a pretty common pet peeve.
What’s “the word” and does it make you literally so angry?
The word is “Born” obviously. It literally destroys them to hear it
You’ll be upset to learn that literally is now defined as figuratively in some dictionaries.
Which robs it of all meaning and utility!
It literally doesn’t; it is giving it even more meaning and utility… Just use the context to know how it’s being used.
Disagree. When a word means what it actually means, but also means the
oppositeinverse¹, then it doesn’t mean anything. The whole point of using “literally” is to establish context, to distinguish an actual literal situation when the language used would otherwise be interpreted as figurative.I’m generally not a prescriptivist, but I’ll figuratively die on this hill. “Literally can mean figuratively” literally robs “literally” of its meaning.
¹ Edit: I should’ve been more precise, it was bugging me.
I’m generally not a prescriptivist, but I’ll figuratively die on this hill.
You wouldn’t literally die on the hill? Doesn’t sound like you’re very committed. 😌
If it was literally a hill I would, but semantic integrity isn’t actually a geological protuberance.
Except that in usage it’s almost never unclear and the use of ‘literally’ in place of ‘figuratively’ adds emphasis. So if anything it adds meaning. “Literally born on the track” is a good example - the meaning is clearly ‘figuratively’. And the image of popping out of the womb onto a running surface adds emphasis and humour.
Contronyms - words that can also mean their opposite - are just a phenomenon of language. Cleave is the common example. You can cleave to or cleave in two.
I figuratively can’t even.
Just a reminder that you need to dumb yourself down to sit through reality tv. Most of the ‘contestants’ are about as smart as a plastic bottle. And about as irritating as squeezing that empty bottle repeatedly.
Right? OP literally brought this on themselves…
I thought this title said The world literally makes me so irrationally angry. Was like, yep, I agree.
Literally me.
