The term literally meant that what ever was stated happened exactly as described without any additional figurative meaning. However, as is normal for human language, the meaning of the term has changed in general conversation. The new meaning is “I am not exaggerating the figurative meaning of this statement.” This change is a response to recent exaggerated use of figurative language.
For example, someone may witness a person trip and think that they were going to fall, so they could say, “I saw them trip and shit my pants.” They didn’t really shit their pants. They weren’t even close to it. They were surprised and slightly worried, so the use of shit my pants was an exaggeration of even the figurative meaning. In contrast, someone may correctly use the term in a figurative manner, such as, “When I saw that car run the red light and almost hit us, I was so scared that I literally shit my pants.” They don’t mean they actually defecated with their pants on, though that could have happened. What they mean is that they were truly scared as opposed to slightly scared. Thus, the term literally means “the exact figurative meaning of”.
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No, that’s literally the opposite of what it means.
The meaning hasn’t changed. There are a growing number of people who use it incorrectly in such a way that it literally has no meaning in their sentence. We all judge them harshly, because they should feel shame.
And should not be accommodated by dictionaries.
I have a simple trick how to distinguish both:
Figurative means Figurative. Literally means literally.
You’re welcome.
That’s precisely not what it means
It means literally. When used in the colloquial ironic usage it means figuratively, in the same way that “yeah right” means “not at all”
No, they misspoke.
Literally means literally:
1530s, “in a literal sense, according to the exact meaning of the word or words used,”
How did someone trip and shit my pants? I got stuck there.
I saw them trip, and then I shit my pants because of it.
This was my thinking:
- I walked outside, and I sneezed. -> I walked outside and sneezed.
- I saw them walk outside, and I sneezed. -> I saw them walk outside and sneezed.
- I saw them trip. I shit my pants. -> I saw them trip and shit my pants.
If they did the thing:
- I saw them walk outside. I saw them sneeze. -> I saw them walk outside and sneeze.
- I saw them trip. I saw them shit my pants. -> I saw them trip and shit my pants.
Crap. I may be wrong, but the grammar seems technically correct, though confusing and depends on context to understand.
Well, time will tell if the major dictionaries add that as a standard definition/usage.
But I see what you’re saying, and it does accurately describe the figurative use of literally. For colloquial usage, it works fine. I do, however, reserve the right to give my kid hell when they use literally figuratively :)
Same! I don’t agree to the change, but I accept that is how society has adopted the use of it. The vast majority of the time I hear someone use the term literally in conversation, they are using it to mean exactly figuratively. I guess I could insist on misunderstanding their message to prove a pedantic point or correct them, but I already have enough difficulty socializing and don’t see the point of making things worse for a futile purpose.
Wellll, I do engage in some recreational pedantry now and then tbh. But not when it isn’t obviously for fun. Well, that and if it’s my kid or my niece. I keep telling them that there’s nothing wrong with slang, dialect, or even just laziness in speech, but you gotta learn formal speech and writing first, and then choose if you’re going to use it or not in daily life.
When I’m not home, I actually drawl like hell, and use local dialect heavily because it’s fun, and it helps people feel relaxed at a big hairy dude being present. Plus, I genuinely love the history of the dialect and its use, so there’s that. But at home, I’m more “correct”, other than my insistence on using ain’t and y’all liberally.
But bothering people with it? Hell naw. If it ain’t my kids, it ain’t my bidness :)
