Grammar pet peeve: Literally means literally!

[pokerfan]

The Oatmeal (quickly becoming one of my favorite webcomics) gets it:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally

[Drunken Irishman]

1. You're literally preaching to the choir.

;)

[jobycom]

2. But epistemologically, does it literally MEAN literally?

Or does it just represent the concept of literalness, while having no literal meaning of its own aside from what has historically been applied to it?

[pokerfan]

7. You just blew my mind. Literally. n/t

[Bucky]

3. There's a blog out there, somewhere, dedicated to chronicalling abuses of the word "literally"

Incredibly, it's not named "Literally Speaking," which I literally took as a given. It's literally named "Literally, A Web Log" and you will literally laugh yourself to death (if you try to read it while driving).

[Bertha Venation]

4. Gayroller

:rofl:

[pokerfan]

11. LOL

[XemaSab]

5. God, last week when the explosion happened

some anchorbot said "It's literally apocalyptic."

No it's not, you moron.

[Lucian]

6. It annoys me to no end on how people literally abuse that word now.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[kayakjohnny]

8. I'm right there with you.

But not literally, of course.

It would be a bit more obvious if I were.

Literally.

[pokerfan]

9. It's literally just a generic intensifier these days

—Usage note
Since the early 20th century, literally has been widely used as an intensifier meaning “in effect, virtually,” a sense that contradicts the earlier meaning “actually, without exaggeration”: The senator was literally buried alive in the Iowa primaries. The parties were literally trading horses in an effort to reach a compromise. The use is often criticized; nevertheless, it appears in all but the most carefully edited writing. Although this use of literally irritates some, it probably neither distorts nor enhances the intended meaning of the sentences in which it occurs. The same might often be said of the use of literally in its earlier sense “actually”: The garrison was literally wiped out: no one survived.

Mad TV cared: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC2QGojQnUY

[JonLP24]

10. Reminds me of the dictionary skit

they did on SNL a year or so ago. They had changing of the definitions, the also said that "bitch" is now a term of endearment. One of them was changing the definition of literally. They also rolled a list of names, similar to the way the Oscars run the name of deaths to music and applause after each name.

[cemaphonic]

12. My pet peeve - People complaining about "literally"

I get why some people find it annoying, especially since many of the more convienient synonyms for literally have also become intensifiers. But people who complain about it often seem to think that it is some newfangled corruption of the English language that only the ignorant would use, when it actually(!) has a pedigree of a few hundred years, and has been used by some of the most celebrated writers.

Interesting discussion here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/

OTOH, the comic is funny, and not the only one on the subject:
http://xkcd.com/725/

My favorite comic from The Oatmeal:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

Especially the bit about the panda at the end.

[jobycom]

13. My 11 year old says "literately."

I try not to pick on her when she does. I succeed sometimes.