Word: literallyã
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Literally?? has several traditional definitions: “strictly adhering to basic meaning,” “word for word,” and “without exaggeration.” It comes from the Latin word littera, or “letter,” denoting exactitude and simplicity...
...literally?? has come to mean just the opposite; it suggests exaggeration, intensity, and insistence. Perhaps this formerly literary term is thus doomed to the ranks of “seriously” or “really,” words that once signified sincerity and now point only to emphasis: “Seriously. I’m going to live in Lamont café. It’s really the best thing ever.” (Overheard in the smoothie line at the Greenhouse...
...literally?? could simply be one of a long list of English contranyms or “Janus words,” named after the two-faced Roman god. These are words that have contradictory meanings. My favorites include “fast” (moving rapidly and bound to position), “buckle” (to fasten and to come undone, collapse), and “impregnable” (able to be impregnated and impossible to enter...
...only is “literally??one of many misleading terms, but it’s also had multiple meanings for quite a while. The third aforementioned quote–the land literally flowed with milk and honey–comes straight from Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel Little Women. And who doesn’t remember Fitzgerald’s description of Jay Gatsby: “He literally glowed?” But neither was the town of Plumfield overrun with food-stuffs nor our favorite social climber actually luminescent. [EDITOR'S NOTE...
Ilyinsky’s column also described an announcer’s use of the word “literally?? during a televised football game—a quotation that also made it into a blog, linked from the Slate article, that tracks the use and misuse of the word...