icepixie | Literally, a post

I'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.

*

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.

Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: "Raglan Road" - Loreena McKennitt

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icepixie

HOW can these people use "literally" to mean "figuratively", when these two words are OPPOSITES?!?

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.

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To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

Literally, a post