By Rebecca - 21/05/2012 14:11 - United States - Austin

Today, my colleague yet again misused the word "literally." It's driving me insane. I have to work opposite him and hear him say things like he's just "literally shit himself inside out." FML
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Top comments

Feared 9

Your comment literally made me shit myself inside out.

142 4
SkoomaKi 27

You should say "I'm literally going to kill you if you don't stop saying literally. Literally".

125 1

Comments

DjeePee 24

Ah, the hard life of being a grammar nazi... So familiar.

28 10
Ugi 26

It's not so much grammar as the desire to actually communicate something. When someone uses "literally" to mean "figuratively" or "metaphorically" they are using it to mean the reverse of what it actually means. If we all went around using words to mean the opposite of what they really mean then no one would have a clue as to what anyone else was saying! It is, on occasion, possible to communicate effectively without perfect grammar. Sometimes the result is clumsy or even has the wrong meaning but often it can be done. However, for the sake of effective communication, everyone has to agree on what a word means. Otherwise chaos ensues.

14 6
reddudeover 2

The hard knock life of being an anal retentive, pedantic douche.

2 3
Jewnut 0

um people change the meanings of words all the time. were not confused are we? I'm pretty sure if we stuck with one proper meaning for words we would all be talking like we were born in the 18th century

2 6
wlddog 14

Changing the meaning of a single word isn't the problem. We develop our culture in a similar way. But when we change several words at once, without giving everyone a chance to adapt to said changes, then you would in fact be speaking nonsense, Liberally.

2 0
Ugi 26

The rate of change needs to be less than one complete revolution every lifetime otherwise people stop being able to talk to each other! Obviously many words have changed meaning somewhat, or even completely, over many generations but "misuse" now spreads so fast that meaning changes within a person's lifetime. That is what causes the breakdown in understanding.

0 0
tony1891 22

just literally tell him to literally shut up... literally.

4 11
ILoveFluttershy 3

How about you literally smack some sense into him?

3 9
micahsmommy 13

Make him watch the episode from "How I Met Your Mother" where Ted goes off on Robin for using Literally incorrectly. Lesson learned the fun way.

42 1
shrdlu 28

Add "literally" to the list of words misused nowadays. I read where someone described a wave as "ten feet tall - not literally, but actually."

17 1
SqueakyChipmunk 21

List: Like Umm Imply Infer Your You're They're Their And now, Literally.

4 1
nofearjenshere 12

You forgot 'there' (:

1 1
Ozuru 11

Okay guys, the literally jokes are literally getting annoying.

19 4
Beta_guy 6

you can have fun and misuse the word ironic, that be what anger's him up lol

4 3
ryu7 0

Lol that was pretty funny, I think you need some anger management classes

2 2
perdix 29

The misuse of the word "literally" is one of my pet peeves, but the worst part is that usage committees are start to accept its common use as a general intensifier. They are caving in by saying that if enough people use it wrong, it becomes right! You should ask your colleague what his friend's intestines looked like.

16 3
wenwenno 4

Is the word literally starting to sound strange to anyone else now?

4 1
muFilter 19

It's not wrong to use a word figuratively, though, and it never was; it's simply a stylistic choice that is no more wrong or right than the use of sarcasm. Of course it may not be to your taste... Also, the process whereby things that were actually "wrong" are gradually accepted as "right" because of common usage is one that drives the evolution of culture. Ideally the really crappy things that somehow make the cut won't stand the test of time.

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