Literally, a post
May. 31st, 2008 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI've had it. I think it's time to retire the word "literally" from the English language, seeing as how nobody--not journalists, not novelists, not message board posters--can use it correctly anymore. 99% of the time I see it, the writer either means "figuratively," or else is using the term to add wholly-unnecessary emphasis (i.e., "The car was literally red"). It's time to give up and move on.
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In happier news, I finally got my hair cut today. I usually get it cut every three or four months, getting around two inches cut off each time. It's been about six weeks since it needed to be cut, so I had the lady chop off three and a half inches. Ahhhh, freedom. I hate it when my hair touches my shoulders; it feels like it's eating my neck, and the longer it gets, the more I fidget with it, and that drives me up a wall, which makes me play with it even more, and it's a vicious cycle.
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In happier news, I finally got my hair cut today. I usually get it cut every three or four months, getting around two inches cut off each time. It's been about six weeks since it needed to be cut, so I had the lady chop off three and a half inches. Ahhhh, freedom. I hate it when my hair touches my shoulders; it feels like it's eating my neck, and the longer it gets, the more I fidget with it, and that drives me up a wall, which makes me play with it even more, and it's a vicious cycle.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 04:58 am (UTC)I AM SO WITH YOU ON THIS. LITERALLY.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 03:35 pm (UTC)INDEED.
(Although...doesn't your hair usually hit your shoulders? Perhaps I misremember. Mine is just barely covering my ears right now, and I LIKE iT.)
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 04:10 am (UTC)Just. When it gets at all below my shoulders, then it gets neck-eaty and RAR.
Mine is just barely covering my ears right now, and I LIKE iT.
Heh. Maybe someday I'll be brave and go that far.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 12:48 am (UTC)You should! Although be careful not to go so far that you can't tuck it behind your ears. Then it constantly gets in your face and you have to resort to barrets, which are no fun. Not that I have any experience with this or anything.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 05:15 am (UTC)oh, hey, someone else that gets claustrophobic from their hair. I don't get as bugged as I used to, but when I was little both my hair and my sock seams would drive me to distraction.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 03:37 pm (UTC)I could get behind this.
And that horrific phrase "very unique" should be entirely disallowed.
Owwww. Yes.
when I was little both my hair and my sock seams would drive me to distraction.
OMG! Sock seams still bother me, and it used to be much worse. They must be on top of my toes, not on the bottom or right at the end of the toenail. And even then they can still get annoying.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 01:26 pm (UTC)ARRRRRGRGRGRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!
*pant pant pant*
(As you've probably noticed, this is a sore spot with me.)
As for retiring the word "literally", well, I agree with your motivations, but if we did do such a thing, then what would we use as its replacement? "Actually"? "Really"? Neither of these seem like suitable replacements. Perhaps we need to keep "literally" around until a substitute can be found.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 03:39 pm (UTC)I don't KNOW! Bad programming in the collective unconscious?
"Actually" was the replacement I was thinking of--the denotation is much the same, though the connotations are a bit different--although probably what was done to "literally" would soon be done to "actually," and then we'd need to find another word.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 01:33 am (UTC)