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> Usage of "literally" to mean "figuratively" dates back hundreds of years, with citations by top English writers. Do you have a source for this? This is exact

> Usage of "literally" to mean "figuratively" dates back hundreds of years, with citations by top English writers. Do you have a source for this? This is exactly how bullshit spreads. > If you believed that "literally" meaning "figuratively" was a recent change, you were mistaken. If you believe your authority as an anonymous commenter overrules the previous anonymous commenter, you have mistaken ideas about argumentation.

mcphage 3y ago
> Do you have a source for this? This is exactly how bullshit spreads. I did, just not on me—I had to come back with it. ** My daily bread is literally implored I have no barns nor granaries to hoard; — John Dryden, The Hind and The Panther (1687) Every day with me is literally another yesterday for it is exactly the same. — Alexander Pope, Letter to H. Cromwell (March 1708) His looks were very haggard, and his limbs and body literally worn to the bone — Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1839) If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son's weak mind. — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843) He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies. — Frances Brooke, The History of Emily Montague (1769) I look upon it, Madam, to be one of the luckiest circumstances of my life, that I have this moment the honour of receiving your commands, and the satisfaction of confirming with my tongue, what my eyes perhaps have but too weakly expressed — that I am literally the humblest of your servants. — George Colman and David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage (1766) Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet. — James Joyce, The Dead (1914) that he had shared her bedroom which came out in the witness box on oath when a thrill went through the packed court literally electrifying everybody in the shape of witnesses swearing to having witnessed him on such and such a particular date in the act of scrambling out of an upstairs apartment with the assistance of a ladder in night apparel... — James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. — Mark Twain, "The Adventure of Tom Sawyer" (1876) All colors made me happy: even gray. My eyes were such that literally they Took photographs. — Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962) Literally, I was (what he often called me) the apple of his eye — Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)

mcphage 3y ago

> Do you have a source for this? This is exactly how bullshit spreads. I did, just not on me—I had to come back with it. ** My daily bread is literally implored I have no barns nor granaries to hoard; — John Dryden, The Hind and The Panther (1687) Every day with me is literally another yesterday for it is exactly the same. — Alexander Pope, Letter to H. Cromwell (March 1708) His looks were very haggard, and his limbs and body literally worn to the bone — Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1839) If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son's weak mind. — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843) He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies. — Frances Brooke, The History of Emily Montague (1769) I look upon it, Madam, to be one of the luckiest circumstances of my life, that I have this moment the honour of receiving your commands, and the satisfaction of confirming with my tongue, what my eyes perhaps have but too weakly expressed — that I am literally the humblest of your servants. — George Colman and David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage (1766) Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet. — James Joyce, The Dead (1914) that he had shared her bedroom which came out in the witness box on oath when a thrill went through the packed court literally electrifying everybody in the shape of witnesses swearing to having witnessed him on such and such a particular date in the act of scrambling out of an upstairs apartment with the assistance of a ladder in night apparel... — James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. — Mark Twain, "The Adventure of Tom Sawyer" (1876) All colors made me happy: even gray. My eyes were such that literally they Took photographs. — Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962) Literally, I was (what he often called me) the apple of his eye — Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)