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> Some people literally don't understand the original meaning and their usage takes over. Supposedly this has happened with "literally". What happened with lit
by tsimionescu 3y ago
> Some people literally don't understand the original meaning and their usage takes over. Supposedly this has happened with "literally".
What happened with literally is not that people didn't understand it's meaning and started using it with some other meaning. What happened with it is what happened with "very" a much longer time ago: it started being used as a generic augmentative adverb and started losing its specific meaning.
When I say "this coffee is so bitter I'll literally die", I'm using literally as an augmentative, as an exaggeration. Similarly, originally when you used "very bitter" it would mean "truly bitter", but overtime it started becoming just a formulaic way of strengthening the meaning of bitter.
- lupire 3y agoI think that's how it started ("figuratively literally"), but not sure that modern youth know the literal meaning of literal. As you say, its meaning extremely vulnerable to the fate it experienced, and many words have suffered the same fate: very, really, actually, ... People who mock "misuse" of "literally" should take a good look that their own diction.
- dpig_ 3y agoI promise you that the kids do know what literal means. They deserve more credit.