5 ms·
> this literally makes my blood boil Unlikely unless you're the Human Torch.
by finnw 14y ago
> this literally makes my blood boil
Unlikely unless you're the Human Torch.
- lancefisher 14y agohttps://www.google.com/search?q=define+literally https://www.google.com/search?q=define+literally "2. Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling."
- tomrod 14y agoBah. I refuse to allow language to advance beyond that which I learned in the sixth grade!
- mistercow 14y agoI think we should stand our ground on this one. We've let every word that can convey the correct definition of "literally" slide down the hyperbole treadmill. I realize that languages live and evolve, but the loss of all unambiguous indicators of actual literalness has made our language objectively worse. You might argue that we can always tell the intent from context, but the whole point of "literally" is for when the context suggests that the expression in question may be figurative. If I say "I literally ate all of the soup in my house last night", you don't know if I'm actually out of soup now, or if I just ate a bunch of soup.
- krichman 14y agoI like it because "literally" is being used hyperbolically, therefore in those cases it is describing the opposite of itself.
- lancefisher 14y agoPeople use literally to emphasize things all the time. I was surprised to find this definition in a dictionary though. I just find it hilarious that literally can literally mean not literally.
- jrogers65 14y ago> If I say "I literally ate all of the soup in my house last night", you don't know if I'm actually out of soup now, or if I just ate a bunch of soup. The majority of communication between people is non-verbal. Learning to read body language, voice tonality and keeping the context in mind resolves the vast majority of the inaccuracy given that one takes all the information in instead of obsessing over form.