The Word "Literally" is 'Literally Overused

[Lord Long Rod]

I heard this gem a few minutes ago in an advertisement for a phone app. They were touting the app's simplicity. Apparently, there is only 1 button. The announcer said "It literally has only 1 button".

The use of the term "literally" is used to distinguish the literal from the figurative in instances where at particular subject could be construed either way. That is MY definition, btw. I do not claim to be a linguist or grammar expert. Here is one correct use of this term: "I went to the dollar store and bought a box of condoms, for LITERALLY one dollar!" But the use of it in the app commercial I mentioned is different. The app has 1 button. There is no other way to construe that. It has one touch point to control the app. I get it. I do not need the statement to be qualified with the use of the term "literally".

I do not want to sound like an overbearing a-hole (which I am), but this is not the only example of the misuse and overuse of the word "literally". I hear it ALL THE FUCKING TIME, whether necessary or not (most of the time it is not necessary). Probably the most famous frequent offender is AOC. How many times have you heard her say something stupid like "The GOP literally wants trans and gays to die". They LITERALLY want this? Really? Here, this moron is using the word "literally" as a tool to emphasize her hyperbolic (and obviously stupid and false) message. No, the GOP does not want anyone to die, nor do they try to craft legislation with the intent of killing trans and gays. Moreover, in what way is the use of the qualifying term "literally" necessary here? She introduced the use of the word "die". It is not like a proposed bill would ever say something like "Finding that the majority of the House wishes to see sexually deviant behavior in this country DIE out, ...". If the word "die" was already in a bill AOC was responding to (rather that HER adding it), then she could use the word "literally" correctly in her rhetoric. But she doe not. Does this mean that AOC is just stupid, or is she truly a garbage human being. I think she is both, but that is just my opinion.

But this problem does not lie just with AOC. She is a product of her generation (young, dumb, ignorant, entitled, and narcissistic). There is a high (in my personal judgment) percentage of millennials and Gen-Z toads out there who are also guilty of this grave injustice against the English language. Everything is LITERALLY this, and LITERALLY that, or LITERALLY was, or LITERALLY will be. No, these rascals do not know the appropriate use of the word "literally". But the fact is, they do not care. They are not really a curious sort to start with. They employ the use of the word "literally" as a means of emphasizing something. They will say something stupid like "Fox News is literally spreading lies". Maybe they are. I don't care. I will make my own judgment on that. The point is that the use of the qualifier "literally" is not needed. It is completely inapplicable, though we hear such things said over and over by these people. Why? Yes, they are dumber than a box of dicks. More importantly, it has become some sort of de facto exclamation mark for our spoken language (a very sloppy use of our language, to be sure).

Please do not construe this to mean that I am asserting that this particular linguistic injustice is perpetrated by just people on the left. I suspect that it is more of a generational thing. It is just that the young leftists tend to be obnoxious loudmouths without shame. Thus, they are the ones you hear this from most of the time. Take my example above about the advertisement for a phone app. I heard it on SiriusXM Patriot. The speaker was the conservative radio show host, Andrew Wilcow. I would also say that while I enjoy listening to his show, he is aptly described as a young loudmouth without shame.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Somewhat related, is the misuse of the word “literally” that has become common these days.

An example would be describing a politician that one dislikes, saying “He's literally Hitler.” Uh, no he's not. The person saying that means to convey that he thinks the target of the remark is very much like Hitler, but there has only ever been one man who was literally Hitler, and that was Hitler himself.

To say that X is literally Y is not a valid way of saying that X is like Y. It's only correct to use literally that way, if X is truly the same thing as Y.

 

[rightwinger]

I literally do not care

 

[Vastator]

My peeve is when idiots use the word "decimated" in an attempt to convey a massive scale of death, and destruction; when it LITERALLY means reduced by 1/10th.

 

[Seymour Flops]

The teenagers I work with use literally for whatever it means when they say, “it is literally a thousand degrees outside,” but they use “legit,” for what literally used to mean. So at least there is a replacement word.

I don’t mind the fact that words change over time with usage. But when it is deliberate, as it often is in politics, it becomes very annoying. It bogs down conversation which is the intent.

Democrats say that black people cannot be racist because they do not have power to oppress others, or whatever. Then they call a black guy that they disagree with a “white supremacist.”

Obviously, the new meaning of “racist” or “white supremacist” is “person with whom I disagree.” Fine. But we need another word that means treating people differently based on their race.

My peeve is when idiots use the word "decimated" in an attempt to convey a massive scale of death, and destruction; when it LITERALLY means reduced by 1/10th.

Mine is when people describe an event very easy to get through as “a cakewalk.” In a cakewalk people are literally eliminated one by one, until only one is left, and they are the only ones who get anything.

In a war movie in which one lone survivor comes back from a patrol, he should say, “I’m telling you Captain. It was a cakewalk out there!”

 

[Lord Long Rod]

I literally do not care

Yet, you care enough to post about it.

 

[rightwinger]

Yet, you care enough to post about it.

I literally don’t care irregardless

 

[Lord Long Rod]

I literally don’t care irregardless

Oops!! You did it again!

 

[Rocko]

I like the old definition. Literally should mean absolute. This is the definition young people use:

• INFORMAL
  used for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true.
  "I was literally blown away by the response I got"