November 14th, 2013 / 11:02 pm
Snippets

Is there a reason the use of the word “literally” has become such a bothersome issue for all of us? What made it possible? Who is to blame?

 

We need a resolution.

18 Comments

  1. Frank Rodriguez

      More mysterious to me is the Oxford Comma thing, which isn’t even grammatical but JUST a preference.

      But literally at least produced this (the comma thing produced a good Vampire Weekend song, which it should also get credit for): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa7TvxC2rgA&feature=share

  2. RM O'Brien

      The way people use “literally” rules. The ones to blame are those whose hackles are so easily raised. I’m not optimistic on us all coming to resolution on this in our lifetimes. It may only be resolved once the Literally Police have all died off. But the ultimate triumph of the Liberal Literalists is inevitable. Truth is on their side. Like Lesser Gonzalez sd, “LANGUAGE IS WHATEVER.”

  3. Quincy Rhoads

      Misuse of the word”literal”literally drives me crazy.

  4. elias tezapsidis

      thx. i agree. i m ostracizing friends based on frequency of illegitimate use, it s bad.

  5. Jeremy Hopkins

      It’s the new “like”. ‘Member that? [Are you s’posed to capitalize the first letter of a word if that word is formed by abbreviating out other letters which would have been capitalized themselves, that is to say the first letter is only first due to the exclusion of other more proper letters?] ‘Member how people complained about it, yet it continued? Another connection: not only is it like “like” in that people complained about it, it’s a continuation of the felt need to compare statements. ‘It’s like a travesty.’ VS ‘It’s literally a travesty.’ The only options henceforth will be to either say ‘exactly’ what you mean or to give up on communication altogether.

  6. lorian long
  7. mimi

      there needs to be a bastard offspring of the word ‘literally’, similar to ‘hella’ (as in “i hella love cm punk, he’s hella funny”), that people can use when they feel the need to express what they seem now to only be able to express using ‘literally’

      and let me add, cm punk is hella funny, literally
      and he’s hella hot, too, but not literally
      literally, he’s 98.6 degrees, unless he’s got a fever… or unless he’s on fire, literally

  8. isScottHammer
  9. mimi

      how about ‘litta’?
      ‘john cena is litta on fire!’

  10. Frank Rodriguez

      Jesus. Genius at sketch, excellent actor, the most annoying/pretentious stand-up ever.

  11. Frank Rodriguez

      All i can think of is “seriously” e.g. “CM Punk is seriously hot, you guys.” That has a Valley Girl affect to it, which is why maybe people glommed onto “literally”!

  12. Mark Cugini

      For real. I take great pleasure in misusing words and punctuation. But I take even more joy in the misuse of “literally”–it’s literally like a hundred thousand Pop Rocks exploding in my mind.

  13. deadgod

      Oxymoronic emphatic particle. Yes: literally.

  14. deadgod

      “Not really, literally” is just right. (But maybe people who say ‘like’ to gather their thoughts/enthusiasm should be careful in front of mikes, too.)

  15. mimi

      totally

  16. Jeremy Hopkins

      Do you like the Maroon Five?

  17. mimi

      maybe

  18. JosephYoung

      over time i’ve wearily [wearibly] become resigned to the Literally Police and all thr henchmen, but why now do we have to contend with the Graphically Police, all the ones aching on about bad fonts, yr cover image, and etc? that’s the one that currently goats me.