The story and much of the commentary I've seen on it seems misplaced because of a conflation of the descriptive vs. prescriptive nature of dictionaries. The ad

The story and much of the commentary I've seen on it seems misplaced because of a conflation of the descriptive vs. prescriptive nature of dictionaries. The addition of this "figuratively" meaning to "literally" doesn't represent and endorsement of it. The dictionary is being descriptive of what is out there. At the same time the statement "it’s okay to use literally to mean figuratively" seems to indicate that the author sees the dictionary as being prescriptive; that its appearance in the dictionary, ipso facto, "legitimizes" it. The bottom line is: you still sound like an idiot using it in that way. Its description in the dictionary is not prescriptive of its usage.