Misuse of the word 'literally' can conjure up some strange mental images.
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"You'll literally laugh your head off!" |
I read in the paper recently that one of the things
that annoys a lot of people about modern language is the misuse of the
word ‘
literally’. Apparently some people are literally tearing their
hair out at the regularity with which this word gets used incorrectly.
However,
I remember watching Stephen Fry argue once that language is a living
thing and that language is constantly evolving. So if people are
constantly using a word to mean something other than what it was
originally intended, you could therefore argue that after a certain
length of time this word then acquires a new meaning. For example the
word ‘fabulous’ originally meant ‘pertaining to fables,’ i.e. a centaur
or a griffon, for example. However, nowadays ‘fabulous’ is just a word which posh people use to mean
‘brilliant’.
I remember arguing with a mate once about
language and when I quoted the wisdom of Stephen Fry on language in
support of my viewpoint my mate then suddenly conceded the argument
stating, ‘You can’t argue with Stephen Fry when it comes to language.’* I
would have to agree, so maybe you could argue that the word ‘literally’
has now developed a new meaning, i.e. ‘literally’ now means ‘not
literally at all’.
* Although you can certainly argue with him when it comes to many other subjects.
Anyway, whether the word ‘literally’
has obtained a new meaning or not, when taken literally it can produce
some interesting mental images, so I thought it would be a cool idea to
compile a list of quotes which quite literally use the word ‘literally’
in a totally non-literal sense.
