“ Literally ” has been a pedantic goldmine, minefield, and substitute for a point of substance in an argument literally forever.
Well, not really literally, but now? Literally. Literally no longer means what it did, and one of grammar’s biggest pet peeves has become… not so literal .
As pedants know, “literally” was technically used to distinguish what sounded like hyperbole from actual occurrences or observations. So, if you meant to impress upon a listener or reader that the events described indeed occurred and were not just an exaggerated example, you could say:
“It was incredibly crowded on the morning 6 train. My feet literally did not touch the floor.” It sounds preposterous, but NYC straphangers can confirm that this level of crowding does indeed occur.
Or, you could be out to explain bad driving conditions, and say, “it was raining so hard the car in front of me was literally impossible to see.”
But if you said it was “literally raining cats and dogs,” it was technically incorrect, as water and not felines and canines were what was falling from the sky.
No more. A somewhat ironic usage of the word (is that the correct use of “irony?”) has taken hold, wherein a user acknowledges tacitly that the usage is incorrect through the implausibility of the statement — “it’s so hot outside, my car is literally melting at this stoplight.”
And thusly, the secondary and less-knowing use in which a user claims something is “literally” some way unaware is becoming more acceptable, as a recently spotted Google definition points out:
The first definition of “literally” given by Google is standard, and reads:
“In a literal manner or sense; exactly: ‘the driver took it literally when asked to go straight over the traffic circle.’ ”
However, the more controversial use of “literally” is also acknowledged by Google’s definition, and subsequently validated:
“Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.”
Which “begs the question” (not really), is literally literally if the user doesn’t know the difference between literal and figurative? And how else are we expected to mock a person’s point without this important grammar weapon?
