I choose to believe chestnuts are lazy.

  • candybrie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    People who think anyone uses literally to mean figuratively are annoying and too caught up in their crusade to realize their take is idiotic. No one uses it to mean figuratively. People use it to emphasize regardless of the figurative nature of language. It’s semantic drift that happens to most words that mean something similar to “in actuality” (e.g. really, actually). Even in other languages.

      • candybrie@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        Yeah. Dictionaries reflect popular usage. And I think literally has probably been in use in that sense nearly as long as it’s been used to mean something really did happen that way.

    • pathief@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      I find if more confusing than annoying, at times. If the emphasizing is getting on the way of being clear, you should maybe use some other way to emphasize it.

      “I’m literally broke” shouldn’t be a statement open to interpretation, in my person opinion. The internet and lack of familiarity with strangers just aggravates the problem.