Monday, August 12, 2013

OBJECTIVISTS AND ANTI-RECURSIVISTS, UNITE!  The ALOTT5MA Grammar Rodeo and Chris Traeger Desks are at loggerheads again. If you go to Google and type in "define literally" it will now give you the following secondary definition for the adverb:
Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.
Posted by Adam at 12:47 PM

14 comments:

  1. The Pathetic Earthling12:55 PM

    This is figuratively the worst thing I've ever heard.

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  2. Eric J.1:42 PM

    This makes me nauseous.

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  3. Joseph Finn2:24 PM

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

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  4. Jenn.3:03 PM

    In what world is it okay for the definition of a word to include the word itself, particularly in a negative way. "Literally" means "not literally."

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  5. Matt3:20 PM

    Of course, "inflammable" actually means both "flammable" and "not flammable," which could lead to some real confusion.

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  6. andrewraff3:32 PM

    This is literally the worst thing to happen to the English language all day.

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  7. jbreddick3:45 PM

    Oooh... CM Punk is not going to be happy about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa7TvxC2rgA P.S. The rest of CM Punk's Grammar Slam is also worth watching.

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  8. Duvall3:53 PM

    The flexibility and adaptability of English is literally my favorite thing about the language.

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  9. Randy4:15 PM

    Google can officially no longer use the motto "Don't be evil."

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  10. Russ5:25 PM

    Oh, they lost that right long, long, long ago. For example, when they acknowledged that the Streetview cars were sniffing data from unsecured WiFi networks as they drove along.

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  11. J. Bowman6:14 PM

    But that wasn't evil, because we all learned the easy way not to have unsecured WiFi networks. And now everyone uses WPA2. Right?

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  12. Maret Orliss6:15 PM

    It's making for some good fun on twitter, though.

    https://twitter.com/KenTremendous/status/366970907840884737

    https://twitter.com/GenevieveKoski/status/367024791506530304

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  13. shonda rhimes11:40 PM

    This LITERALLY makes my head explode...

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  14. Becca7:16 PM

    I'm torn. I mean, yes, literally doesn't mean figuratively. It just doesn't. However, language is SUPPOSED to evolve, to adapt to our use and to keep progressing as we progress. Yes, I think people should probably learn and be aware that literally was not intended for this use. But I also don't want to be entirely resistant to change. A stick in the mud. As long as it doesn't creep into formal writing, I can live with this. I think. We'll see how I feel in a few weeks. I might have clawed my eyes out by then.

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