we all have 'em. those tiny, insignificant battles of opinion that you’ll stubbornly defend to your last breath, even though they literally do not matter one bit. i’m talking about the truly petty stuff. like, i firmly believe that cereal is a soup. fight me.
I’m fine with language evolving over time, but I reject “literally” being used to mean “figuratively”. Distinguishing figurative from literal is, literally, the word’s one job. Take that away, and the word literally doesn’t mean anything but a generic intensifier. There literally isn’t another word that fulfills that disambiguating purpose, this semantic drift only decreases clarity.
I just quickly read a couple of discussion on the definition of ‘literally’ that don’t particularly pick up on the following, but in the ai era this doesn’t really mean anything.
I remember being told that originally used to mean ‘figuratively’. I.e. as in ‘in literature’ as opposed to ‘in reality’. This seems to be in keeping with its modern use as an intensifier.
I’m not interested in a debate on this, as it doesn’t really matter to me. I’m just passing on what I was told, and offering offering a differing perspective.
Whoever told you that was incorrect. Literally means the plain textbook definition of the words written, as opposed to euphemism or metaphor. If I say “I would literally die on this hill”, it means that there is an actual large mound of dirt that I am willing to lose my life on.
Any other interpretation is literally incorrect.
Family member said, while in the passenger seat, “I’m so freaking hot because I’m literally in the sun”
I’m thinking about it, and I think they might be right. Sunbeams are a part of the sun, albeit mingled with atmosphere. If they were in direct line of the sun, i could consider them technically, literally, correct.
It all depends on whether you consider an object bathed in the radiance of something to be “in” that thing, but I’m kinda inclined to consider that.
There’s a few things here. In the sun vs in the sunlight/rays. The window being rolled up.
I took it as then being inside of the sun.
“I am literally in the sun”