― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 14:13 (eighteen years ago) link
I mean umm, No. If only I were that clever.
― uptoeleven (uptoeleven), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 15:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 15:17 (eighteen years ago) link
FUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFU!!!!
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 15:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pangolino 2, Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Allyzay Rofflesberger (allyzay), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:47 (eighteen years ago) link
Aw, ken, jhoshea is just being effusive.
― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:53 (eighteen years ago) link
If you doubt this to be true, just check out my personal website: http://www.adorasvitak.com/Main.html
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 19:41 (eighteen years ago) link
"Heat stroke can literally fry your brain like a boiled egg"
― ledge, Tuesday, 20 May 2008 22:18 (sixteen years ago) link
"The Whig Party literally fell apart during the 1850's"
― tricked by a toothless cobra, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 03:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Those crazy fried boiled eggs.
― Trayce, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 04:10 (sixteen years ago) link
During coverage of the big Bay Area earthquake in...whatever year the quake happened during the World Series, I was very irritated at the news people for using the word thusly: "The freeway (house, bridge, etc.) literally collapsed." Yes, it's true, the top of the freeway did fall, but was there ever some question that its collapse might have been figurative?? (What they really meant was "The freeway fucking collapsed!")
― Jesse, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 04:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Any Jamie Oliver tv show.
― svend, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 04:32 (sixteen years ago) link
It's deliberate but it's so awesome I don't care:
when i was younger, there was no such thing as irony, and if there was, no decent person had ever heard of it. now--its irony in the shower, irony for breakfast, irony in your afternoon nap. irony has literally kidnapped everything good and decent and tied it to a chair and literally beaten it.
-- max, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 06:33 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 21:53 (fifteen years ago) link
joe
biden
stop
― goole, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 21:56 (fifteen years ago) link
report all miscreants to this blog:
http://literally.barelyfitz.com/
― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 26 August 2008 22:40 (fifteen years ago) link
“It is time for him to explain how eight years of deregulation policies have brought us to this dangerous ground,” Mr. Reid said. “And most importantly, it is time for him to explain how his plan — drafted literally under cover of darkness — will help America weather this storm.”
― Everything is Highlighted (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 24 September 2008 21:52 (fifteen years ago) link
My colleague claimed to be literally on fire today.
She also uses 'to be brutally honest' for very mundane inoffensive truths.
― bidfurd, Wednesday, 24 September 2008 22:45 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought people had stopped doing this? I don't think I've heard anyone misuse literally in like 5 years.
― BigLurks, Thursday, 25 September 2008 23:10 (fifteen years ago) link
I was literally glued to my seat
― I know, right?, Thursday, 25 September 2008 23:16 (fifteen years ago) link
My favourite example of this stems from when a high school teacher told my class that if we didn't remember.... something or other... we'd be literally throwing marks down the drain. There was a guy in the class called Mark.
― ShNick (Upt0eleven), Thursday, 25 September 2008 23:30 (fifteen years ago) link
I remember a physics gcse class many years ago where my teacher told us that if we didn't do X in the exam, we'd literally be throwing marks down the drain.
There was a guy in the class called Mark and the idea of throwing him (and others like him obv.) down a drain was rather appealing.
― uptoeleven (uptoeleven), Monday, February 20, 2006 8:35 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― lex pretend, Friday, 26 September 2008 08:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Blimey! Search Enjinn's improved!
― Mark G, Friday, 26 September 2008 08:46 (fifteen years ago) link
my teacher told us that if we didn't do X in the exam, we'd literally be throwing marks down the drain.
This is liberal schooling gone too far
― The Slash My Father Wrote (DJ Mencap), Friday, 26 September 2008 08:59 (fifteen years ago) link
especially when they've gone Euro
― Mark G, Friday, 26 September 2008 09:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Popjustice says that the new Britney single is "literally quite good."
― LBC's Steve Allen good morning I'm afraid (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 26 September 2008 09:04 (fifteen years ago) link
I've literally never heard anyone criticise this misuse before. I've literally said literally like this on purpose so many times that I literally sometimes use it in the wrong context on purpose. It's literally a pain in the face.
― Local Garda, Friday, 26 September 2008 20:52 (fifteen years ago) link
I meant to document this last week, but on CNN last Friday before the presidential debate, some commentator said that John McCain is going to have to literally reach out of the television and embrace the Americans watching the debate.
― Eazy, Thursday, 2 October 2008 15:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Man, that was a close one.
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 2 October 2008 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link
I seriously don't know if I could've literally held my shit together if a thing like that happened.
i hate it when words are literally misused, hehe
― cameron carr, Thursday, 2 October 2008 17:09 (fifteen years ago) link
Joe Biden uses this literally--and I mean literally--every day.
― vast variety of steens where we get our HOOS (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 2 October 2008 17:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I just misused "literally" in a way that gave me pause. Some old friend popped up on Facebook, like they do, and her status message was about being in the Air Force and doing all kinds of strength training and loads of push ups and such, and I said something dumb like, "Yeah! You were always made to kick ass, and now you can do it literally."
What I meant, of course, was that now she is physically strong in addition to being super cool. But literally doesn't mean one less level of figurative speech down from where you began, it means word-for-word. To literally kick ass, there must be an ass, and someone must be driving their foot into it with great force.
I feel stupid for employing one of my own linguistic pet peeves.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 04:42 (fourteen years ago) link
I guess wasn't a step down in how figurative the speech was. More of a lateral move.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 05:17 (fourteen years ago) link
See, there's another borderline case. It's not a flat-out misuse of the word as much as it's an abuse of it, sticking it unnecessarily into a sentence as an intensifier. The sentence is fine without it.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 06:50 (fourteen years ago) link
maybe if she was a paratrooper she would be literally kicking ass ... but then I don't know all that much about the different branches of the military and whether anyone in the Air Force would be given training in hand to hand combat, or be in a position where they would employ those skills in the field.
― actually a decent question y'all fucked up with ironic bullshit answer (sarahel), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Doesn't much matter, I don't think, unless I was trying to refer specifically to glutes and the kicking thereof.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:02 (fourteen years ago) link
it's not as egregious a misuse as if she were a legal secretary ...
― actually a decent question y'all fucked up with ironic bullshit answer (sarahel), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Of course not, but that's exactly what bugs me about it. The thought will come through with its intended meaning, I'm sure, but it will still have a word in it that's totally wrong. I should have said "physically" instead, because it's what I meant.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Hey, if I don't edit my Facebook replies, who will?
well, I suppose if you posted your name and password on ilx, some ilxor might do so for the entertainment value ...
― actually a decent question y'all fucked up with ironic bullshit answer (sarahel), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh, that'd be a hoot and a half.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:16 (fourteen years ago) link
would it literally be, though?
― actually a decent question y'all fucked up with ironic bullshit answer (sarahel), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:20 (fourteen years ago) link
HOOOOOOT! Hoo.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:25 (fourteen years ago) link
That half a hoot really undermines any previous hooting.
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 07:26 (fourteen years ago) link
― (I'm white, btw.) (kenan), Friday, July 24, 2009 2:50 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark
No, this is not a borderline case. It is a flat-out misuse. The Whig Party did not "literally" fall apart. "Fall apart" is per se a metaphor when talking about anything that does not physically fall apart, hence not literal. Unless maybe the Whig party was all gathered on a ship and all fell off different sides of it.
― the kid is crying because did sharks died? (Hurting 2), Friday, 24 July 2009 20:47 (fourteen years ago) link
When metaphors come, they come not single spies, but in battalions
― never name anything coolpix (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:01 (fourteen years ago) link
ppl who care about other ppl misusing this word are fukken soulless
― here comes the slug line (Lamp), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:03 (fourteen years ago) link
literally one month ago
― calstars, Monday, 28 May 2018 03:01 (six years ago) link
https://ig.me/am8rz2YnB48osC
― calstars, Wednesday, 25 July 2018 00:13 (five years ago) link
The misuse of "literally" is most often an attempt at hyperbole, in the mistaken belief that overstating the truth makes one's misstatements stronger and more persuasive.
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 25 July 2018 03:56 (five years ago) link
LITERALLY vs ACTUALLY vs Just say it vs Shut up
― calstars, Wednesday, 24 April 2019 16:38 (five years ago) link
posters itt are literally cops
― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, 24 April 2019 17:11 (five years ago) link
literal lol
― j., Wednesday, 24 April 2019 18:42 (five years ago) link