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I think Merriam-Webster has this a little bit wrong, actually. It's not that it's a different meaning of the word, but that the word is being used hyperbolical
by dllthomas 4y ago
I think Merriam-Webster has this a little bit wrong, actually. It's not that it's a different meaning of the word, but that the word is being used hyperbolically. When someone says "you left me waiting for days" we don't say "sometimes days means minutes" and fret about how anyone will understand time. We say that people exaggerate. The fact that this use shows up pretty much right away is evidence that it's not a different sense of the word, but people doing an ordinary thing they do with any word we hand them.
- jamincan 4y agoI think you're right that it's an example of hyperbole. The important thing to understand in the context of this discussion though, is that hyperbole is not ungrammatical. It serves a function in a sentence to communicate emphasis or draw attention. Saying 'it is quite literally the cradle of Chinese civilization' is no less grammatical than saying 'I have a tonne of work to do' or 'downtown is dead on Monday nights'.
- dllthomas 4y agoI don't think anyone was saying "{Noun phrase} is literally {other noun phrase}" is ever ungrammatical, just disagreeing about how often it's incorrect.