The problem is that we need a way to say "actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy" succinctly. Also, to say "I am using an idiom, but non-idiomatically."

"Literally" should be that tool. I understand that a word's meaning is, by definition, what people mean when they say it, but it is frustrating to have this communication tool drift away with nothing to replace it.

As another commenter said, this same thing happened to "very" and "really" in the past. So maybe it's time to let "literally" go and make up a new word for it?

> but it is frustrating to have this communication tool drift away with nothing to replace it.

My point is that it isn't "drifting away"—it has been used as an intensifier for hundreds of years.

Mostly a question of euphemism drift (or rhetorical drift, if that's a thing) -- "really" and "very" are former terms that meant "without exaggeration or inaccuracy" but slowly drifted towards a rhetoric use.

Interesting.

(That's another one that tends to mean the opposite)

Wait, was this a burn? Ouch.

Hah, honestly I think I replied to the wrong thing.

What is the point of the word literally then? What information does it convey if not to say that it is actually, without exaggeration?

> What is the point of the word literally then?

I don't think words have a point.

> What information does it convey if not to say that it is actually, without exaggeration?

Sometimes it does convey that. And sometimes it's merely an intensifier. Lots of words are like that.