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That assumes that evolution is always good. It isn't. Consider the recent acceptance of the ironic usage of "literally" to mean "figuratively". If it wins, t
by bmelton 12y ago
That assumes that evolution is always good. It isn't.
Consider the recent acceptance of the ironic usage of "literally" to mean "figuratively". If it wins, there will no longer be as precise a word that means only "literally", and the English language will have suffered a loss.
I am all for the evolution of language where it creates new words, adopts and embraces portmanteaus, or embraces the use of easily intuited non-words into the common parlance, but not every change is an improvement, and where a non-improvement exists, it should be resisted.
- tedunangst 12y agoHave we recently changed the definition of recent? You know how far back literally meaning not literally goes, right?
- bmelton 12y agoThe Merriam Webser and Cambridge dictionaries began accepting the change as canon circa 2013. I consider that recent, especially given its long history of misuse.
- pbh101 12y agoPerhaps Joe Biden being vice-president was the tipping point. He is an egregious violator, using 'literally' to amplify how much he means 'figuratively.'
- mcphage 12y agoIf "recent" you mean "for the last 200 years".
- ScottBurson 12y agoI agree wholeheartedly, but I have to wonder if our resistance does any good. Years of telling kids not to say Sally and me went to the store has produced, now, several generations of people who say he gave it to Sally and I, which, of course, is just as wrong.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> Consider the recent acceptance of the ironic usage of "literally" to mean "figuratively". This description always bugs me, because the description is inaccurate. The examples usually given are not ironic usages of "literally" to mean "figuratively", they are figurative usages of literally to mean "almost as if literally" (that is, figurative uses of "literally" to minimize the figurative character of some other figurative expression.) It is also not recent, at all. Its been going on literally forever.