3 ms·

If enough people say that the quote is attributed to the wrong person then does it become fact like the redefinition of "literally"?

• JadeNB 11y ago
  > If enough people say that the quote is attributed to the wrong person then does it become fact like the redefinition of "literally"? I think that's funny as a question, but has the wrong premise. There is no 'actual' meaning of words; they have meaning only by mass human consensus. (What is the actual meaning of 'flumbiliable'?) By contrast, there is an 'actual' first utterer of a quote, whether or not there is any consensus on his or her identity. (I suppose that you could argue, though, that it is only mass observation of a quote that makes it a quote per se, rather than just something I said; if I mutter something under my breath, and it later occurs as a widely quoted line in a movie, then should it be attributed to me, to the screenwriter, or to the character who said it?)