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I think people get confused over how dictionaries work. They aren't meant to dictate usage of language, but reflect it. If "literally" has come to mean its op
by adwf 13y ago
I think people get confused over how dictionaries work. They aren't meant to dictate usage of language, but reflect it. If "literally" has come to mean its opposite in a large proportion of common usage, then that's what it means now. No matter how bizarre that may seem...
Another way of thinking of this is as a foreigner learning English for the first time. If you hear someone using the word "literally" and you don't know what it means, you will look it up in the dictionary and expect to find all the various possibly meanings.
- saraid216 13y agoI attribute it to a misunderstanding of what authority is. People believe, and thusly treat, authorities as prescribers. As people who tell you what to do. That's not what an authority is. An authority is a heuristic. It's someone who has heard the question before and can answer it faster than reinventing the wheel. That's what a dictionary is. Someone else went and surveyed all the uses of a word and documented it so that you don't have to do it yourself. An authority is a search engine. Being authoritative is being a good search engine.
- dTal 13y agoAck. "Thusly". I see that far too often for every use to be "ironic". It is not a word, it is a joke at the expense of illiterate people, and now the joke is stale. Stop using it.
- mhurron 13y agoNonsense, the dictionary says it was used correctly: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thusly http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thusly