"Literally" doesn't mean literally any more

[Neonatal RRT]

A pregnant woman I know said "I literally haven't eaten for months." I knew what she really meant was "I haven't had an appetite for months", and yes I do understand double meanings and all that (she had eaten of course, as I'd seen her many times eating), but the weird thing is the way we as humans now use the word "literally" to make it as far away from literal as possible. I mean if you really had not eaten in months, how would you get people to actually take you seriously, as saying "literally" would probably make them take you seriously even less?
Is there an alternative word to use that won't be taken in a non-literal sense?

"Literally", "actually", "crazy", "intense", "amazing", and the long list of other intensifiers, descriptors, are simply used in our vernacular as ways to sensationalize something. I agree, that the use of the word "literally" by some, has lost its "literal" meaning.

 

[Jumpinbare]

Yeah, I am trapped using accurate language. I can't knowingly let an ambiguity or inaccuracy slip into my speech. People will misunderstand. I can't prevent that. But I can make sure not to contribute to it by not using language imprecisely. I have been studying the Cherokee language. It shares many characteristics of other Iroquian languages. What really struck me was how precise Cherokee is. In English, you can make use of ambiguity to cause someone to believe one of the ambiguous meanings, when in fact you are referring to the other. Thus you can lie without actually telling an untruth.
Cherokee has almost zero ambiguity. You have to construct your sentences so accurately that there really is only one meaning. If you want to lie in Cherokee, you can't manipulate the words to have multiple meanings. You have to tell a blatent lie.
Why on Earth aren't all languages that accurate? (I know, I know, because people want to be able to get away with lying. Sigh.)

 

[Fino]

I think it depends on how you say it. It's common for people to say "I literally..." and it's not literal, but when it's worded differently like if you say something then follow it with, "I mean that literally," I think it's usually more clear.

 

[SusanLR]

Interesting discussion.
I've never been a perfectionist on language usage.
New words and meanings come and go. As long as the meaning is understood, there is communication.

Some slang and vernacular speech are not clearly understood beyond the area that uses it.
I lived much of my life in the Ozarks, and they actually made a dictionary of how words are used and pronounced in the area as a tourist item.
Not everyone spoke this way, but if you lived there long enough you would learn what the words meant.
I'm sure other parts of America have sections that are just as distinctive to their speech.

The Urban Dictionary is a good example.
One word I grew up hearing in most speech was ain't.
I never thought it would become a word in the English dictionary.
Even on this post, the spell checker marks the word as incorrect.
But there it is. It is suggested to be used informally. Not in formal documents and speech.

There have been new slang words come to the front in my lifetime that sound absolutely silly, and I didn't know what some of them meant.
Bite me was foreign to me and I had to look it up for the meaning.
The most commonly used explicative sounds silly to me, but many use it about every other word in speaking. It actually makes me feel a bit angry to hear it sooo much.
And there's an embellishment: "sooo."

 

[MNAus]

Of course language evolves, but it grates a bit when it evolves through error. I think it's great when people use a word in a totally new way. A lot of slang has this. I think someone posted "gnarly". That's such a great word.

But the "literally" one gets me too. It's actually now defined both as meaning literally, and also as not meaning literally (but earnestly meant). Also "jealous". I know it's been crossed over somewhat for a while, but jealous now seems to have completely taken the entire meaning of envious. I wonder if most people could actually find the word jealous for the "other" meaning any more. Makes me wonder what they think of Lennon's "Jealous Guy" or the description of God as being jealous. Probably imagine both of them are withing they had someone else's new iPhone.

But the one I really struggle with belongs to Americans (and I would guess Canadians). And that's "I could care less". It literally (correctly used there) means the opposite of what is intended. So they stuck it in the dictionary.

 

[UFO]

Person saying "I literally haven't eaten for months" is literally asking me to tear a new one to him/her...

That was a joke, I am not that much of a grammar-nazi...

But I do dislike inaccuracy of language, thought I can live with it (I have to). Actually, even I use knowingly (read: I don't bother to polish every word and concept for an eternity) language in a wrong way with things that are not important. Or as a form of joking. But using constantly misleading, and even totally wrong concepts, and not even caring of it... No, no, no, and one more time, no...

Another thing I dislike, is that in work, during morning meetings, when they share tasks between people, they ask "Do you want to do this?" Nope... I can do it. I have time to do it. I have resources to do it. I know how to do it. But it is very unlikely that I want to do anything that is just part of my work instead being in my actual field of interest...

Slang words are introduced and do tend to evolve languages exponentially more than educated scholars revise or introduce new terminology in any official capacity. It's because of larger and larger groups of uneducated people using a language while having no clue that specific terminology already exists for what they want to express/say.

Slang is also used as a form of secret language. To make distinction between cultures of different generations, or social circles.

Thought probably not that much these days, but in my country the slang they spoke hundred years ago actually was like a different language, partly based on euphemisms and partly based on loan words even for most basic things that everyone definitely knew the "right and proper words".

Cherokee has almost zero ambiguity. You have to construct your sentences so accurately that there really is only one meaning. If you want to lie in Cherokee, you can't manipulate the words to have multiple meanings. You have to tell a blatent lie.
Why on Earth aren't all languages that accurate? (I know, I know, because people want to be able to get away with lying. Sigh.)

Now I want to be Cherokee...

 

[Misty Avich]

I've never been a grammar nazi nor am I usually bothered by informal use of language. It's just sometimes when I'm trying to stress that something is real I can't use the word "literally" to describe it because the word has become more figurative.

 

[thejuice]

Language evolves, get over it.

I literally cant even!!

 

[marc_101]

I'm literally late to this discussion, but I literally cringe when people use that word incorrectly, and I want to whack them on the head (figuratively).

And no, that's not language evolving, that's devolving. Getting words correctly is important for communication. And it's also fun to argue about it. ;-)

 

[Mary Terry]

If language didn't evolve, we'd all be grunting like cavemen. Same old grunts, all the time.

 

[Forest Cat]

since we speak Danish where I live, examples are hard to share in an English forum

One thing I love about the Danish language is that to Norwegians, all you guys sound like you are drunk. It's funny. And when we want to speak Danish, we just speak Norwegian with a hot potato in our mouths. Instant Danish. It's a great language.

 

[kriss72]

One thing I love about the Danish language is that to Norwegians, all you guys sound like you are drunk. And when we want to speak Danish, we just put a hot potato in our mouths. Instant Danish.
It's a great language.

I have had foreigners tell me it sounded like a throat disease when we spoke I really like Norwegian, it has much more melody than danish

 

[GrownupGirl]

Today I learned that there's a street in England called Dumb Woman's Lane. But a long time ago "dumb" used to just mean "mute", so it likely means women who are mute and not "dumb" as in "stupid".

Still, I find it really annoying when people say "literally" when they mean "figuratively".

 

[Forest Cat]

I have had foreigners tell me it sounded like a throat disease when we spoke

"Do you have a throat disease?"
"No, I'm Danish".

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

But the one I really struggle with belongs to Americans (and I would guess Canadians). And that's "I could care less". It literally (correctly used there) means the opposite of what is intended. So they stuck it in the dictionary.

This reminds me of a bit of comedy, I can’t remember what from. It may be a bit dated…so I try to be more current correct:

Partner A says to Partner B:“You have the morals of an alley cat.” And they replies, “That’s funny. Yesterday, someone told me I don’t have the morals of an alley cat.”

For non-English speakers, they both mean the same thing.

 

[tree]

Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device of saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious what the true intention is.[1]

Some authors treat and use antiphrasis just as irony, euphemism or litotes.[2]

When the antiphrasal use is very common, the word can become an auto-antonym,[3] having opposite meanings depending on context. For example, Spanish dichoso[4] originally meant "fortunate, blissful" as in tierra dichosa, "fortunate land", but it acquired the ironic and colloquial meaning of "infortunate, bothersome" as in ¡Dichosas moscas!, "Damned flies!".

Antiphrasis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org