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We need a word for "literally" that doesn't also mean "not literally" (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Since it's widely accepted that the word "literally" can be used to add emphasis, we need another word that can be used when you want to make it clear that you really mean "literally" in the original sense.

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[–] 3 points 5 months ago (7 children)

We had a perfectly good word, which people with decent vocabulary used properly, and then people with bad vocabulary ruined it.

Why should those who had a decent vocabulary in the first place improve theirs, instead of the people with the poor vocabulary who ruin the accepted definitions of words improve theirs?

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (4 children)

    It’s not the product of having a bad vocabulary. The English language changes all the time. And “literally” not commonly being used in a figurative sense is relatively recent the figurative meaning dates back to the 1600s.

    Mark Twain used the figurative literally. As did Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, Louisa M. Alcott, and many more people widely considered to be among the best authors ever to have lived. I don’t think anybody has accused them of having poor vocabularies, or not using words “properly”

    It even makes sense WRT the etymology, because it means “as in literature”, from the Latin “literalis” - “pertaining to words”

    If you want to have a go at an intensifier for being used improperly, you’d do better to target “really”. It means “like reality”, from the Latin “realis” - “actual”

    So a sentence like “I was really shitting myself” makes less sense than “I was literally shitting myself”, if we’re referencing fear rather than faeces

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (3 children)

    Well, sure, I'd want to see the exact context of the use. It would be one thing if Twain was using it that way himself, it would be another if he was putting it into a character's mouth, which would add a slight nuance.

    A modern example would be the guy in Parks & Rec who used "Lit'rally" often, and with emphasis, in situations that were clearly NOT Literal. I wouldn't assume that the writer endorses the concept.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (2 children)

    Twain:

    And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth.

    Alcott:

    The land literally flowed with milk and honey on such occasions,

    Dickens:

    ‘Lift him out,’ said Squeers, after he had literally feasted his eyes, in silence, upon the culprit

    And so on

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