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
"The Whig Party literally fell apart during the 1850's"
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
like literally soulless
― Mr. Que, Friday, 24 July 2009 21:03 (fourteen years ago) link
eggxactly theyre fukken aberrations
― here comes the slug line (Lamp), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:04 (fourteen years ago) link
To say that a thing "fell apart" meaning it decentralized, lost all organization, and scatterd is a level of abstraction I an willing to accept as very close to reality. yrmv.
― never name anything coolpix (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:05 (fourteen years ago) link
this literally drives me up the wall when people do this
― Mr. Que, Friday, 24 July 2009 21:05 (fourteen years ago) link
que voulez vous
― here comes the slug line (Lamp), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:07 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.chrisgenoa.com/archives/ex3lady2.jpg
― Armageddon Two: Armageddon (dyao), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:07 (fourteen years ago) link
wait, that's literally the ceiling
my bad
Tell me is something eluding you, sunshine?Is this not what you expected to see?
― never name anything coolpix (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:08 (fourteen years ago) link
anyway guys, how do you know these people aren't just using the word 'littorally' in a non-literal manner
― Armageddon Two: Armageddon (dyao), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:09 (fourteen years ago) link
I for one am a big fan of clicking the litoris.
― never name anything coolpix (kenan), Friday, 24 July 2009 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link
"We really can't afford, literally, to be locking people up unnecessarily, ineffectually and so pointlessly. More on less would be a saner approach," he says.
― Great Scott! It's Molecular Man. (Ste), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 08:29 (fourteen years ago) link
maybe they literally can't afford it? prison costs are spiralling.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 09:15 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah what is wrong with that?
― ken "save-a-finn" c (ken c), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 10:19 (fourteen years ago) link
i mean there is literally nothing wrong with it
Their policy of locking people up ineffectually might need looking at. Bigger locks guys.
― Gunther von Hagen Daas (NickB), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 10:21 (fourteen years ago) link
literally can't afford bigger locks, that's the problem.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 10:25 (fourteen years ago) link
literally bigger locks are expensivehttp://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:W6HiNodAoWqerM:http://lh5.ggpht.com/_u1pYVqsbTG0/RvPBtZbgYDI/AAAAAAAABWM/rgUR9uj5MDg/DelhiDarshan%2B051.jpg
― ken "save-a-finn" c (ken c), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 10:29 (fourteen years ago) link
Just get smaller prisoners?
― Gunther von Hagen Daas (NickB), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 10:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Children come cheap innit
i refer you to the fake baby thread.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 10:36 (fourteen years ago) link
anyway, denying the child labour market valuable resources imo
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 10:37 (fourteen years ago) link
unless- we can get child prisoners to work somehow. hmmmm.
Just heard someone talking about the ring around Saturn which they've just recorded the existence of, on radio 4: said ring proves a hypothesis about one of Saturn's moons. I didn't hear the details of the hypothesis because I was too busy marvelling at the description of the several-million-miles-across ring as being "literally the smoking gun"
― thomp, Wednesday, 7 October 2009 12:34 (fourteen years ago) link
i watched a documentary film the other night where the smoking gun was literally in the ring around uranus
― ken "save-a-finn" c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 October 2009 12:40 (fourteen years ago) link
When I saw that story about Saturn this morning, I literally thought "I bet some people will be disappointed it's not Uranus"
― Mark G, Wednesday, 7 October 2009 12:45 (fourteen years ago) link
happy literally as long as it's not mars
― ken "save-a-finn" c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 October 2009 12:48 (fourteen years ago) link
"Exactly."
― krakow, Wednesday, 7 October 2009 12:48 (fourteen years ago) link
actually
― kamerad, Wednesday, 7 October 2009 14:08 (fourteen years ago) link
rectally
― ken "save-a-finn" c (ken c), Wednesday, 7 October 2009 14:15 (fourteen years ago) link
ah i see, i was looking at it as ...literally locking people... up, my bad
― Great Scott! It's Molecular Man. (Ste), Wednesday, 7 October 2009 20:53 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-08/jones-chastises-critics-of-advertisers/4300268
"These people, through literally clogging up phone lines, email systems, Facebook and everything else, they really are making it in some cases almost impossible for these businesses to continue to function," he said.
― Autumn Almanac, Sunday, 7 October 2012 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
From this news item about a woman mistakenly identified as pregnant by an airline - "my jaw literally fell on the floor"
― qiqing, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:29 (eleven years ago) link