# I'm figuratively nauseated by your literal ignorance **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 16, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307 "2019-09-16T13:11:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/61 "2019-09-17T00:38:43Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Not necessarily (although not necessarily false either.) It is consistent to concede that the other terms have already completely lost their meaning but still desire a term that literally means literally unambiguously. Are you claiming that the words “really” and “actually” no longer have any meaning? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/62 "2019-09-17T00:51:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Are you claiming that the words “really” and “actually” no longer have any meaning? That really appears to be the claim. And I’m really torn on this one, because it does appear to be sincere; but I’d also be gobsmacked if Ludovic is unable to distinguish between the two related meanings of “really” in this paragraph. It’d be pretty weird if he couldn’t, the equivalent of thinking I was describing that weirdness as “somewhat beautiful” when I said it was pretty. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/63 "2019-09-17T01:18:08Z")
Personally I find only a little use for the word “literally” in my communications, either written or spoken, and would in particular avoid using it to add hyperbolic emphasis. When I hear it used in that way I can’t help but hear Rob Lowe’s Chris Traeger from _Parks and Rec_ abusing the crap out of it. So I can be on board with a belief that _usually_ it is used because the person expressing the thought knew that the expression they had in mind was a worn out cliche but either had insufficient skill to create a more powerful or apt metaphor or was too lazy to … so they added on the “literally” to the crappy one instead, as if that made up for the inanity of the metaphor being used. And the intensifier usage is still a very proper one. It is just one of many [contronyms](https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-contradictory-meanings/): “terms that, depending on context, can have opposite or contradictory meanings.” A fun list that one, and I wonder if those who shudder at the long-established contradictory meanings of “literally” similarly object to many of _them_. Does the fact that I can dust my cake with sugar and then dust my nightstand as my next task bother them? Is it very problematic that our custom is no custom orders? That the sous chef’s wages were garnished because he garnished the plates with too many expensive edible flowers? Does the objection to the opposite meanings of one word weather this argument or is it weathered by it? Are you really dying for this sort of contradictory word usage to stop? Really? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/64 "2019-09-17T01:40:18Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > No? Then what is the problem? Given the general superiority of your control over the English language, I expect it should be a simple task for you to explain the core of your discontent over the issue in a way even a simple, unlettered ignoramus like myself could eventually come to comprehend. [Read this thread.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=882138) It addresses the issue I raised. How do you teach something to somebody when they do not want to learn it? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/65 "2019-09-17T01:42:31Z")
Quantum leap for a big change is my pet peeve. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/66 "2019-09-17T01:51:58Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Quantum leap for a big change is my pet peeve. What _better_ word to be a contronym than one based on the concept of existing as two states at the same time?? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/67 "2019-09-17T01:59:47Z")
This is not a serious conversation. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/68 "2019-09-17T02:19:56Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This is not a serious conversation. I’m having a little fun but the points made are in fact serious, assuming those who object to the real world usage **s** of “literally” are serious, and not just whooshing the rest of us. Stylistically the rule is simple: write clearly and unless the _goal_ is to have the two meanings both be possible interpretations, avoid circumstances in which a word’s meaning is unclear from context. Very seriously this happens with lots of words. What is meant by “Trim the tree.”? You’d only know by context but rarely would context not make it clear. Are we talking about a small cut fir in a Christian American family room in December? Or an oak with a branch scraping your house in the Fall? One meaning is putting on and the other taking off but the context allows the same word to clearly mean either opposite thing. “Literally” is in very good company. English is a grand thing! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/69 "2019-09-17T05:01:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And now when we want to express the real meaning of the word decimated, we can’t. Because if we say something’s decimated, people won’t know if we’re using the word correctly or not. And even if we say something was literally decimated, a listener still won’t know. So what? Of course we can still express “the real meaning of the word decimated”: we can say “reduced by one-tenth” or some synonymous expression. Sure, you can never guarantee that you can go on using **the same word in the same way forever** and always have it interpreted in the same way. Linguistic meanings are born and change and sometimes go extinct. That’s why I can’t say in modern English, for example, _“I went over to my brother’s for some pleasant intercourse”_ without startling and shocking a lot of listeners who won’t be aware that I’m using a somewhat archaic form of the word. > [@Little Nemo](#): > > Language is being lost as a means of communicating thoughts clearly because we’re losing our vocabulary. Nonsense. We’re not losing vocabulary, we’re just changing vocabulary. New words and meanings are constantly being added to the language, just as old words and meanings are gradually falling out of use. > [@Little Nemo](#): > > And when we lose the ability to communicate thoughts clearly, we lose the ability to have clear thoughts. We end up lost if a mental fog of things we don’t really remember and don’t really understand. :dubious: This is ludicrously melodramatic hooey. Is your ability to think clearly degraded because you don’t use “nice” in its original sense of “choosy, discriminating, precise”? Or because you sometimes say “based off of” instead of “based on”? Nobody with a normally functioning brain loses the ability to think clearly just as a result of ordinary linguistic evolution changing the meaning of some words. If you can’t naturally adapt to that commonplace linguistic phenomenon without ending up distressed and “lost in a mental fog”, you may want to consult a professional about it. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/70 "2019-09-17T06:23:00Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > … > “Penultimate” meaning “last” (as opposed to “next to last”) does not appear to be common enough to make it into any of the dictionaries I checked. I think **Hilarity** had a misfire on this one… That word is not used, as I’ve heard it, to mean “last.” It is used to mean, “beyond ultimate,” where “Ultimate” is used to mean “the most” rather than “the last.” Like, the last time I played frisbee it was not Ultimate Frisbee…or was it? Or, you know, I had a misfire. “Podium” really gets me though, and don’t even get me started on “alright.” Oh, too late. Sometime in the late '60s, when I was in high school, I had a teacher–not even an English teacher–who could get really wound up because some dictionary or another had allowed in the word “alright.” She would give up on whatever lecture she’d started on if you could get her off on this tangent. She might even forget to assign homework. “It’s two words! People who write it as one word are conflating it with ‘already’ and ‘all ready’ which have two different meanings. If you use this word you are an ignoramus.” Well alrighty then. I have since worked at places whose stylebooks expressly forbade “alright.” But now my spell check is flagging “all right” and recommending that word of ignoramuses, or is it ignorami? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/71 "2019-09-17T07:07:23Z")
“Ignoramopodes.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/72 "2019-09-17T07:32:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > [Read this thread.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=882138) > > It addresses the issue I raised. How do you teach something to somebody when they do not want to learn it? Well, that is indeed the issue, isn’t it? What do you do with people who cling to their stubborn prejudices despite the overwhelming weight of expert opinion? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/73 "2019-09-17T12:58:02Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Quantum leap for a big change is my pet peeve. People not understanding the historical meaning of “quantum” is my pet peeve. Julius Caesar never used the word to mean something at the atomic scale. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/74 "2019-09-17T13:11:21Z")
A descriptivist is someone who says that if enough people make the same error, it’s not an error anymore. A prescriptivist is someone who writes rules but if anybody follows them it’s a coincidence. Prescriptivism gives a measure of comfort to those who demand order but ultimately it’s a losing battle. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/75 "2019-09-17T13:18:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > … Language is being lost as a means of communicating thoughts clearly because we’re losing our vocabulary. And when we lose the ability to communicate thoughts clearly, we lose the ability to have clear thoughts. We end up lost if a mental fog of things we don’t really remember and don’t really understand. > > And this is bad. Because when people can’t understand anything more complicated than a bumper sticker, they end up yelling “Build The Wall!” at a Trump rally. People who aren’t capable of rational thought aren’t capable of telling the difference between good leadership and demagoguery. You are expressing a Sapir-Whorf hypothesis view: language shapes thought. No question in my mind that a language which forced a paucity of expressive means onto the population would be doubleplusungood. But language in fact reflects thought. Words that are not needed to reflect current concepts either go extinct or adapt and new words form to fill new cognitive niches. While the premise that we are losing vocabulary is untrue, if it was it would be a reflection of our becoming foggy, not a cause of it. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/76 "2019-09-17T13:34:56Z")
Prescriptivism is a social construct - it’s a way of saying, “I know what the rules are; therefore, I am smart and educated.” The fact that the rules are completely arbitrary and pointless is immaterial. The thing is, I’m not so sure this is a bad idea. Sometimes I want to know who the smart and educated people are. Don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/77 "2019-09-17T14:36:45Z")
1. Rules change. 2. As defined by the dictionaries the rule is that the word can be used as a hyperbolic modifier. 3. There are those who use words to attempt to signify their membership in an educated elite club. I want to know who they are in order to mock them. I admire more those who can express complex ideas in ways understood by the room they are in, whatever the level of that room. That takes skill. They are the smart and educated. The others? I think the saying goes “he is a bookcase not a scholar.” ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/78 "2019-09-17T15:17:00Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Prescriptivism is a social construct - it’s a way of saying, “I know what the rules are; therefore, I am smart and educated.” The fact that the rules are completely arbitrary and pointless is immaterial. > > The thing is, I’m not so sure this is a bad idea. Sometimes I want to know who the smart and educated people are. Don’t you? Works for the [French](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acad%C3%A9mie_fran%C3%A7aise). ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/79 "2019-09-17T20:51:58Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > … > Corporal: Sarge, there’s snipers on that ridge! Smith’s head literally exploded when they started shooting! > Sergeant: He was really surprised, huh? > Corporal: No, I mean he was shot in the head by a sniper, and his head literally blew into separate chunks. > Sergeant: Well, I imagine getting shot at for the first time can be pretty shocking, but he’ll get used to it. > Corporal: Sarge, he’s dead! His corpse is right here, and you can see that he’s literally lost his head! > Sergeant: He’s in the army now! He needs to get his emotions under control! > > Or, the shorter version from the other side, perhaps? > > “When Smith saw the sales numbers, his head literally exploded!” > “OH MY GOD! CALL THE COPS! ACTIVE SHOOTER! ACTIVE SHOOTER! EVERYONE SHELTER IN PLACE!” If that isn’t an SNL skit, it should be. I hardly ever LOL at something I read, and I LOL. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307/80 "2019-09-17T21:02:54Z")
OK, a real-world example where “literally” is ambiguous (I think I encountered this one on this very board): “He owns literally a thousand CDs”. This might mean that he owns, say, 80 of them, and the speaker is just using “literally” for emphasis. Or it might mean that he’s a DJ, and really does own more than 999 CDs. Nor does it help to instead say “He owns a thousand CDs, for reals” or “he actually owns a thousand CDs”, because those have the same use as an intensifier that “literally” does. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-figuratively-nauseated-by-your-literal-ignorance/840307.md?page=5)