[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 4 KB, 768x488, a.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4097268 No.4097268[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Why do many people use the word 'literally' incorrectly?

>> No.4097279

>>4097268
You're literally overreacting.

>> No.4097287
File: 27 KB, 600x450, grammar_nazi.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4097287

Some, because they talk without thinking.

Others, because it's in the current culture to use "literally" for emphasis only rather than actual meaning.

All, because they just don't give a shit.

If you want to crusade and police people, going after their speech patterns and word choices is probably the most futile, fruitless endeavor you can possibly target.

>> No.4097294

>>4097268
Eventually it'll be understood as meaning both. That's how language works; a number of the words we use now would be "incorrect" some years ago.

>> No.4097299

>>4097294
Some examples:

"Egregious" used to mean really good. Now it means really bad.

"Luxury" used to have a sexual connotation. Now it does't.

"Wit" and "witty" meant wisdom/wise. Now, it doesn't.

Language evolves. You can either whine about it impotently or go along with the flow.

>> No.4097300
File: 396 KB, 250x250, 1376706824329.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4097300

>nigger don't understand the concept of a language game with imperfect rules

>> No.4097301

OP maiyse I akse thee frome wen3e agoon
thine hart waf beset upon th' loon
ta carroct and proper lingual yoon?

>> No.4097304

>>4097299
Remember when "genius" simply meant one's psyche? I'll bet if you spoke of your own genius today you'd get punched in the mouth.

>> No.4097309

its literally a conspiracy, you idiots

you could have prevented this

>> No.4097312

>>4097268
>what do you mean?

>> No.4097313

>>4097301
Whoops, I fucked up.
It's "frome wheen3e agoon"

>> No.4097314

>>4097299

I'd still say that luxury has a very slight sexual connotation. For example, think of how many chocolate/shampoo commercials marketed exclusively to women who think themselves to be sexy use the word "luxurious".

>> No.4097321

>>4097268
I literally can't read

>> No.4097336

>>4097287
What bothers me is they changed the dictionary definition to suit the window lickers that used it incorrectly, so now the word "literally" has two contradictory definitions.

>> No.4097338

Should we go back to speaking in Anglo-Saxon

>> No.4097348

Its misuse is so widespread that most assume it to be correct. It becomes embedded in their vocabulary, at which point they can quickly toss it into daily speech without consideration to emphasize something. The same goes for the phrase "could care less."

I had an anatomy professor in college that incorrectly used the word "literally" at least thirty times per class. Did it bug me? Sure. But all the times I hear teenage girls shout that they just "literally shit themselves" make up for it.

I agree with >>4097294. It'll eventually adopt its current usage as a second meaning if it hasn't already. Fortunately, that will never happen with "could care less."

>> No.4097353

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/15/definition-of-literally-that-isnt-literal/?iref=allsearch

Which is bullshit because even if you accept language changing to accommodate flexible use, it sucks that this word got lost as there is no other word that means to describe something as being literal, but whatevs.

>> No.4097359

>>4097268
It's in the dictionaries like that. Even as a prescriptivist you have no right to complain.

>> No.4097362

>>4097268

Because you're literally too fucking stupid to understand a metaphor, even when it's applied to a word that basically means "without metaphor".

I'm literally dying at how stupid and autistic you are.

It's metameta. Is that hard to understand? No. Is it too tempting to be a dick about? Obviously, which is why I don't give a fuck about people "wrongly" using literally.

I'll literally fuck your dick with my own until you literally end the universe by literally orgasming a thousand deaths, literally.

>> No.4097372

>>4097268
2sophisticated4u

>> No.4097746

>>4097362
I remember when you tried to act super polite and intelligent your first day. What happened?

>> No.4097758
File: 2.73 MB, 250x250, joaquin pjoenix loses his shit.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4097758

>>4097301

>> No.4097768

>>4097353
actually...

>> No.4097816

>>4097336

Because Oxford dictonary is a dictonary of USE. They put the definitions of words that are being USE right now. That's why they also put "twerking" there because is USED.

You wish you have something useless and elitist like the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language?

Because here "bizarro" means "Brave. Generous. Splendid" and nobody use it for that anymore. Not even my grandmother.

>> No.4097832

I think originally it was used as ironic hyperbole and simply became so common that it got a twisted meaning. Similar to the history of the word egregious.

It's the exact same thing with the word epic. I remember 7 years ago in high school when we all started saying it, because it was funny how simple things would be described by a completely disproportionate word. Then it just became synonymous with 'cool.'