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The word literally makes me so irrationally angry (self.rant)

submitted 5 days ago by FreshParsnip to c/[email protected]

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

You'll be upset to learn that literally is now defined as figuratively in some dictionaries.

[–] FreshParsnip 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Which robs it of all meaning and utility!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

It literally doesn't; it is giving it even more meaning and utility.. Just use the context to know how it's being used.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Disagree. When a word means what it actually means, but also means the ~~opposite~~ inverse¹, 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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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. 😌

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

If it was literally a hill I would, but semantic integrity isn't actually a geological protuberance.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

I figuratively can't even.