What's the word/grammar hill you are absolutely dying on?
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OED made a grave mistake re-defining “literally” to also mean “figuratively”
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
That definition is bonkers. Meaning (1) is the opposite of meaning (2). We can't be having a word mean X and the opposite of X. Nah fam.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
So it’s been wrong for over 250 years.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Now we have two words for figuratively and no words that actually mean literally. Thanks for that, I hope next you agree that stop means go because some people are illiterate
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
@grok tell us which scurvy knave started that back in 1769
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Yes, I accept that people have been getting it wrong for hundreds of years. Still wrong.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
257 years of misuse. Asteroid or flood. I'm past caring.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
But, is there a word that still means something that ‘literally’ happened versus the hyperbole?
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
So does slavery. What's your point?
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Yes, but using it hyperbolically or sarcastically does not mean that "figuratively" is one of its definitions. For example, it's very common to say "Yeah, right" sarcastically and yet I notice that Merriam-Webster does not claim that "wrong" is one definition of "right".
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
People said "bless you" because they thought evil spirits could enter the body during a sneeze. We learn. We do better.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
I see @MerriamWebster has joined AWFUL - Americans Who Figuratively Use “Literally”! Of course this name involves a misuse of “awe,” and therefore of “awful,” but 🤷‍♂️ we do the possible with the available.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
As hills go, a 257-year-old hill is pretty young.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
You keep saying that and it keeps being irrelevant. Fun fact: one of the first things you're taught in trying to learn how to write well is to remove adverbs. And it works, makes the writing clearer and improves pacing.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
I think even Jane Austen used it
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
So "literally" joins the ranks of contronyms like cleave, sanction and enjoin "without exaggeration" can take the place of "literally," I guess
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
FWIW, Europeans killing Maoris also dates back to 1769.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
And to lol dates from Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida (Act I, Scene 3): The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; Cries 'Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
But it's not hyperbolic if it means that now. The usage and hyperbolic effect comes from the fact that it doesn't mean that.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Doesn’t make it right
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
So what? Are mistakes not mistakes because they were made a long time ago?
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
It ain't worth much to know that there was an idiot in 1769.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Wrongly.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
1769: When people were even less educated than today.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
And it was wrong then, too.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Nothing, @MerriamWebster . It's worth NOTHING.
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Only in America!
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
Whoops
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Replying to @MerriamWebster @tonmcg
And it was just as incorrect then, spineless intern.
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