this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

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submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's not how 'literally' works

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Literally has been used as an intensifier for over 200 years. The Oxford English Dictionary includes the definition of "figuratively". Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain all used it that way in their writing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is truly bizarre that one of the definitions of the word is literally the opposite of the primary definition of the word, however.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The dictionary is descriptive, not proscriptive. Language evolves

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I knew I'd receive that reply, and I know it to be true. It's still very odd, as noted. I'm sure there are other examples where one definition contradicts another, but none immediately spring to mind.