It’s finally happened.
Merriam-Webster, Macmillan Dictionary, and Google have done it. Even the Cambridge Dictionary and the revered Oxford English Dictionary have done it.
Done what?
All these dictionaries have said that literally no longer has to mean “used for showing that what you are saying is really true and is not just an impressive way of describing something.” They have added an informal use of “literally” as part of the word’s official definition:
- Merriam-Webster: in effect, virtually
- OED: informal used for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true
- Google: used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling
- Macmillan: used when you are describing something in an extreme way that cannot be true
Thank God for Dictionary.com, which has to date not changed the definition but has only added an editor’s note:
“Since the early 20th century, literally has been widely used as an intensifier meaning “in effect, virtually,” a sense that contradicts the earlier meaning “actually, without exaggeration”: The senator was literally buried alive in the Iowa primaries. The parties were literally trading horses in an effort to reach a compromise. The use is often criticized; nevertheless, it appears in all but the most carefully edited writing.”It may not seem like such a big deal. It’s just a word. Why get so bent out of shape if people get it wrong? If the dictionary follows suit? But language represents the way we think. Literal has always been tied to concept of the truth. And although people have misused it for decades, there was still a notion that somewhere there existed an accurate truth. If you can change the meaning of truth, if truth has now become elastic, if a word that means truly no longer means truly, what’s next? How are we now supposed to know what is, and is not, literal? Accurate? True?
What if someone says:
I am literally your best friend.
This is literally your last chance.
I literally never want to speak to you again.
This is literally the best offer you will ever get.
Well, is it, or isn’t it?
It’s enough to make my head explode.
But not literally.
Comments 3
That is actually litterally mindboggling. Sorta.
Hugs
~Anne
Brilliant and entirely irritating. Gotta love the English language!
Well, Carole, you have just added to my confusion of the world. I could have done without knowing this, literally. Now that I have this information about the changes in these dictionaries, I am literally unsure of any definition. What’s next? Black really means white and white really means black? Oh well, life keeps getting more convoluting.