Auto-antonyms are hardly a new concept.
It doesn't make them a good one. Especially in the case of "literally" where you can't always tell from the context.
Auto-antonyms are hardly a new concept.
Trump throwing around the word "disloyal" like he's a mob boss
Context is often not very clear with this word.Context is key.
Besides, the word "literally" and "literal" did not originally mean "actually", it just meant "of or pertaining to letters or to writing". Why do you want to use the term literally for something besides its original use? Oh right, because words evolve.
On the plus side, if he gets crushed in the GE it would hopefully send a signal that we aren't having this BS.It's hilarious but also terrifying that someone so petty who sounds like a mob boss when talks about people being "disloyal" has a chance of becoming arguably the most powerful person in the world.
Hey guys, this democrat wants to take away my right to vote. I'm going to tell everyone I know that this is how democrats feel. They want to remove my right to vote because they don't agree with me.Not the most democratic of thoughts, but whoever votes for Trump should be stripped of their rights to vote.
Context is often not very clear with this word.
Also, point me to another word that means the same thing and I'll stop not-literally dying on this hill. 'Actually' is close, but seems to ignore the figurative meaning instead of complementing it.
Words change, but in this case the language seems poorer for it... and I say this as a Saffire-hating descriptivist.
Have we had a "literally" thread? I should probably stop shitting up this one...
Edit - chose exactly the wrong word. Is that irony?
The one sensible criticism of the way `literally' is often used is that it can lead to confusing or silly-sounding results. In this case, the answer is simple. Don't write silly-soundingly.
In fact, the literal meaning of `literal' is something like `according to the letter.' So when we use `literally' to refer to something other than individual letters, we're already walking down the figurative path.
In 1985, hed published a piece in New York called A Different Kind of Donald Trump Story, which portrayed him not as a brilliant mogul but as a ham-fisted thug who had unsuccessfully tried to evict rent-controlled and rent-stabilized tenants from a building that he had bought on Central Park South. Trumps effortswhich included a plan to house homeless people in the building in order to harass the tenantsbecame what Schwartz described as a fugue of failure, a farce of fumbling and bumbling.
Seriously.When Roy Cohn thought that you were an asshole...
JUST IN: Trump organization sent cease and desist letter to "Art of the Deal" ghostwriter