This is mostly a pet peeve of mine because my mother is simply THE WORST about it. She has to include it many many times in every conversation, and she misuses it EVERY SINGLE TIME!
Just off the top of my head:
It seems to be just randomly inserted in to otherwise coherent sentences, or worse, in front of figures of speech. “I literally laughed my ass off” NO YOU DID NOT!!
AAAAHHHHH!!!
Does this piss anyone else off as much as me? Makes me want to slap people. It’s only possible to correct someone so often without being a total asshole, and there’s literally no way I could hope to put a dent in this within that range.
This is one of those annoying ways that crap from TV shows can sneak its way into our vocabulary, giving those of us who don’t watch the show being referenced some really awkward moments. I think the “literally” thing is from a recurring Saturday Night Live skit.
When I avoided TV for several years there were people who I literally couldn’t communicate with.
It’s rampant. As a kid, I was confused for years about whether “literally” meant “literally” or “figuratively.” Just when I thought I’d figured it out, some numbnuts would say something like “The record literally climbed up the charts,” and I’d be confused again.
I always use literally to mean ‘not as an expression of speech.’ Anyone who uses literally to mean ‘figuratively’ should be shot, because you’re createing a meaning for a word that is the opposite of the current meaning.
I literally was going to post this exact post, as I literally just read that column in SI , literally, yesterday.
Now what figuratively drives me nuts, is when someone uses the word “nonplus” incorrectly. I have literally seen that more than once in columns written by professional writers.
Random House is apparently not quite as judgemental as you pack of pedants.
Usage. Since the early 20th century, LITERALLY has been widely used as an intensifier meaning "in effect virtually ": The senator was literally buried alive in the June primaries. This use is often criticized; nevertheless, it appears in all but the most carefully edited writing, and probably neither distorts nor enhances the intended meaning-which, as in the example above, may already be couched in figurative language. In such cases, nothing is lost by omitting LITERALLY.
Do you mean you were reading the text rather than looking at the pictures? I must be an “illiterate masturbator” then because I always look at the pictures … except when I’m with Joy (yeah, the one with the short hair and perky breasts)… then she does it all for me
Another pet peeve of mine is the much abused, misused and overused “basically”.
So, basically I have literally nothing to add to this thread.
