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I am literally judging books by their cover and they assume I am a prophet. (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 months ago by [M] to c/BrandNewSentence@lemmy.today
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[–] 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Context is the difference. If you're one of the people who can't understand hyperbole and saracsm and such, you'll just have to take my word for it I guess.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    If you’re one of the people who can’t understand hyperbole and saracsm and such

    I understand it just fine.

    The problem is that the word "literally" is supposed to mean "without hyperbole or sarcasm". So when you use it to emphasize hyperbole or sarcasm, you're making the word meaningless.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    the word “literally” is supposed to mean “without hyperbole or sarcasm”

    According to what objective standard? Good luck finding one outside of maaaybe special-use technical jargon. Here's the literal dictionary's take on it, if you'd prefer to go that direction with the conversation.

    Words mean what their speakers fluently use them to mean - anything else is just linguistic snobbery masquerading as concern.

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