Re:Wikipedia users edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
by riwsky on Saturday May 06, 2023 @03:22AM
(#35839034)
But no one uses ‘using “literally” to mean “figuratively”’ to literally mean ‘using “literally” to mean “figuratively”’, either. Instead they mean ‘using “literally” in the context of a figurative usage’, as you point out—the censure of which is warranted by its being a lazy cliché. The augmentation is not generic; the coincidence is feigned in the service of irony.
Re:Wikipedia users edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”
by tsimionescu on Sunday May 07, 2023 @02:18AM
(#35848417)
Lots of people do use literally, which manifests by them complaining that it is becoming a self-antonym or that it's losing its meaning. Is it a lazy cliche? Probably. Is that a reason to complain it's hurting the word literally? Obviously not.
When some say "I laughed so loud I literally rolled on the floor", they do not, in any way, mean "I laughed so loud I figuratively rolled on the floor". Instead they mean "I laughed so loud, that it was almost like I was literally rolling on the floor". It is merely used as a generic augmentative: the phrase has the same basic meaning with or without "literally", but it gains more emphasis with it. The fact that it happens to apply to a figurative usage of "rolling on the floor" is mostly a coincidence.
Its just like "very" (which is a contraction of "verily", truly) has been adopted as an augmentative and lost its original meaning of "truly".