Has "literally" changed its dictionary meaning?

[wolfpup]

@Andy_L

Ah, you’re using the new meaning of “literally.” That’s fine. But in the 19th century that would been a very unusual way to use the word. It means “regarding words or letters” (or sometimes “word for word”). In the 19th century, “literally” was almost always used in phrases like “translated literally” - which meant translated word-for-word, rather than idiomatically (translating “nagelneu” from German into “nail new” instead of the more idiomatically useful “brand new”). You can see how people started to use the word “literally” in a figurative way (to mean “actually”) but that’s not how the word was originally used.

While I understand your point, I would argue that the “actually” meaning is very close to the original meaning and is a natural evolution of it. As already noted, “dictionary.com” lists both of those closely related meanings:

1. taking words in their usual or most basic sense without metaphor or allegory.
   “dreadful in its literal sense, full of dread”

2. (of a translation) representing the exact words of the original text.
   “a literal translation from the Spanish”

My own view on the matter is probably familiar, as I’ve managed to insinuate myself into just about every discussion of “literally”, and it’s simply the following.

Of course dictionaries have to be descriptive – that’s their function. And so they duly record the perverse use of “literally” to mean its exact opposite, either as informal usage or as accepted standard English. My view is that such usage – essentially as a meaningless and potentially confusing intensifier – is a stylistic choice and is usually – but not always – a bad one.

It’s been frequently pointed out that respected writers have long used “literally” in the figurative sense, but my counter to this is that when they’ve done so, they’ve generally done it in a way that skillfully intensifies a metaphor that is closely aligned with a literal reality. For example, “literally glowing with happiness” denotes an appearance that can also be described as “radiant”, or as an infectious excitement – one can imagine (literally) flushed cheeks; contrast that with some illiterate moron saying “I was so surprised that my head literally asploded”.

I see that @Miller has unintentionally provided more examples that conveniently prove just this point.

• “Literally run off her feet” – not literally literally, but skillfully conveying the closely related notion of excessively running around to the point of exhaustion.

• “Literally rolling in wealth” – perhaps not “rolling”, but conveying the closely related notion of being surrounded by it.

• “proceeded literally to suffocate me” – conveying the closely related notion of being constrained or burdened by someone’s excessive spirits, to the point of wanting to free oneself from it.

• “limbs and body literally worn to the bone” – conveying the closely related notion of being haggard and malnourished, possibly with the outline of bones (literally) visible.

No, not “a pack of unlettered morons”. A pack of skilled writers who know what they’re doing.