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Current Events > Adding not literally to the dictionary definition of literally is ridiculous.

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 4:28:44 PM
#1:


It's just sarcasm or humorous fake emphasis.

Every single word in the dictionary could have this added.

"Oh your place is so clean" -meaning clean or not clean

"The food at this restaurant is so good " - meeting good or not good.

"Wow, what a genius" - meaning genius or not a genius.

And we can get dumber

"You're so cute I just want to eat you up!" - meaning they want to eat them or don't want to eat them

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GATTJT
08/27/25 4:33:33 PM
#2:


Okay

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 4:33:51 PM
#3:


Yes
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monkmith
08/27/25 4:34:24 PM
#4:


huh?

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A_Good_Boy
08/27/25 4:34:47 PM
#5:


TC what the fuck is you talking bout?

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 4:36:20 PM
#6:


Words.

But if you didn't know, the word literally also has the definition "not literally" now according to the dictionary.
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Spidey5
08/27/25 4:38:02 PM
#7:


https://youtu.be/t4m7_6BueH4?si=qH2PtqL7d6nNXlOZ

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DipDipDiver
08/27/25 4:38:34 PM
#8:


It's one of the primary uses of that word in modern language

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ChocoboMogALT
08/27/25 4:44:41 PM
#9:


Way to go, Nimrod. (Not you, TC.)
That's awful.
What an original idea.
Where did you peruse this?
I don't sanction this at all.

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 4:45:37 PM
#10:


DipDipDiver posted...
It's one of the primary uses of that word in modern language
Considering literally only had one meaning before being one of the top two reasons to use it isn't a particularly compelling argument.
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ChocoboMogALT
08/27/25 4:49:05 PM
#12:


BTW, dictionaries are and should be descriptive holders of a language. Imagine a non-native speaker looking up a word. Yeah, contronyms are confusing, but at least you'll know what it could mean

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 4:49:27 PM
#13:


ChocoboMogALT posted...
Way to go, Nimrod. (Not you, TC.)
That's awful.
What an original idea.
Where did you peruse this?
I don't sanction this at all.
The difference is that literally is more repeatable as it's exactly a reverse meaning unlike awful which is more of derivation.

How did those least three change? I also feel like you aren't using peruse correctly in that sentence.

This is like flammable and inflammible all over again, now that one is seriously a dangerous confusion to someone not fluent in english
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Tyranthraxus
08/27/25 4:49:50 PM
#14:


https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/cab4f3bb.png

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viewmaster_pi
08/27/25 4:51:49 PM
#15:


DipDipDiver posted...
It's one of the primary uses of that word in modern language
erroneously because internet

b-but but language is always evolving! yeah yeah, what the fuck ever

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A_Good_Boy
08/27/25 4:52:46 PM
#16:


Quezovercoatl posted...
Considering literally only had one meaning before being one of the top two reasons to use it isn't a particularly compelling argument.
Do you think the dictionary should be prescriptive instead of descriptive?

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ChocoboMogALT
08/27/25 4:53:51 PM
#17:


Quezovercoatl posted...
The difference is that literally is more repeatable as it's exactly a reverse meaning unlike awful which is more of derivation.

How did those least three change? I also feel like you aren't using peruse correctly in that sentence.

This is like flammable and inflammible all over again, now that one is seriously a dangerous confusion to someone not fluent in english
Original can mean new or old, with some ambiguity.
Peruse means read thoroughly or quickly skim.
Sanction means approve of or disapprove of.

Inflammable has always meant easily lit on fire, generally.

And Nimrod and awful are words that have come to mean the opposite of their original intent. Awful used to describe God.

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NoxObscuras
08/27/25 4:54:56 PM
#18:


DipDipDiver posted...
It's one of the primary uses of that word in modern language
This. I hate that kids use it that way, but it makes sense to add a definition that's seeing wide usage. My 10 year old uses it for things that are not literal

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 4:58:01 PM
#19:


A_Good_Boy posted...
Do you think the dictionary should be prescriptive instead of descriptive?
To some extent, yes. I don't want to go back to the 1800's when everyone had their own six spellings for the same word.
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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 4:59:06 PM
#20:


ChocoboMogALT posted...
Original can mean new or old, with some ambiguity.
Peruse means read thoroughly or quickly skim.
Sanction means approve of or disapprove of.
Original doesn't mean new or old, just the source. An original idea is the source, the origination of an idea. An original of a work of art or manuscript doesn't mean old, it means the first version of it.

I know what the other two mean, but when did they change?
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A_Good_Boy
08/27/25 4:59:27 PM
#21:


Quezovercoatl posted...
To some extent, yes. I don't want to go back to the 1800's when everyone had their own six spellings for the same word.
Is this a real concern that has a basis in reality or are you being just literally histrionic?

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 5:00:59 PM
#22:


There actually were tons of different spellings for the same word before it was all normalized. Same with unique grammar etc. Old writing is kind of wild. New terms and words were constantly being coined. At one point scholars apparently sat down and started making books to try to standardize thing

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DrizztLink
08/27/25 5:03:00 PM
#23:


Nice, awful, hussy, egregious, terrible, naughty, pretty, weird, matrix, ambidextrous, cloud, drench, explode, jargon, pink...

All of these are words that have evolved over time to mean something completely different, and occasionally opposite the original definition.

This is not a new phenomenon.

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EmbraceOfDeath
08/27/25 5:06:03 PM
#24:


DipDipDiver posted...
It's one of the primary uses of that word in modern language
It's literally not.

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 5:06:40 PM
#25:


Different is one thing, and not always as completely as you think. Explode always referred to an outburst, it just became more and more literal as an explosion of activity is still a usage that doesn't indicate an actual explosion: but you can see how something detonation could have that evolve as a usage.

Give me an example rather than a list
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GeraldDarko
08/27/25 5:10:32 PM
#26:


But it's a common enough usage to have it put down. Awful used to mean good, now it's bad. Words change.

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DrizztLink
08/27/25 5:12:41 PM
#27:


Quezovercoatl posted...
Give me an example rather than a list
No.

I gave you fifteen examples and you kinda-sorta-almost managed to refute one.

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A_Good_Boy
08/27/25 5:14:20 PM
#28:


Quezovercoatl posted...
Give me an example rather than a list
I haven't a clue. I can't fathom any examples.

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Rika_Furude
08/27/25 5:15:50 PM
#29:


Quezovercoatl posted...
Considering literally only had one meaning before being one of the top two reasons to use it isn't a particularly compelling argument.
*you personally dont find it compelling

good thing you dont maintain the dictionaries
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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 5:18:04 PM
#30:


GeraldDarko posted...
But it's a common enough usage to have it put down. Awful used to mean good, now it's bad. Words change.
Well more like awe inspiring. Which doesn't imply good or bad really.
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GeraldDarko
08/27/25 5:22:21 PM
#31:


Quezovercoatl posted...
Well more like awe inspiring. Which doesn't imply good or bad really.
But they used to use awful as good. Awfully is still used as awe inspiring.

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 5:24:47 PM
#32:


What you're describing is centuries of evolution as earlier versions are displaced entirely due to association.
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ChocoboMogALT
08/27/25 5:27:01 PM
#34:


Quezovercoatl posted...
What you're describing is centuries of evolution as earlier versions are displaced entirely due to association.
Welcome to evolution. You're seeing it right now.

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GeraldDarko
08/27/25 5:27:27 PM
#35:


Quezovercoatl posted...
What you're describing is centuries of evolution as earlier versions are displaced entirely due to association.
That's how all words change.

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A_Good_Boy
08/27/25 5:30:34 PM
#36:


If someone served you sweet meats for dinner, what would you expect that to actually be?

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 5:33:41 PM
#37:


GeraldDarko posted...
But they used to use awful as good. Awfully is still used as awe inspiring.

awful originally meant causing terror or dread, or frightening, inspiring reverential fearGod could be awful. The word did not simply mean very bad. Awful is a much older word, dating back to Old English, the language spoken in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Instead, the modern sense of awful meaning very bad dates to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The earliest citation of this sense in the Oxford English Dictionary is by Thomas Green Fessenden (1771-1837), a journalist, satirical poet, and early American political pundit. (Fessenden also wrote extensively about farming and gardening. Go figure.) In 1809, he penned a sentiment that is very familiar to us today:

https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/awesome-awful
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DipDipDiver
08/27/25 5:37:37 PM
#38:


Quezovercoatl posted...
Considering literally only had one meaning before being one of the top two reasons to use it isn't a particularly compelling argument.
And now it has two definitions. That's about as compelling as it needs to be tbh

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GeraldDarko
08/27/25 5:41:43 PM
#39:


Quezovercoatl posted...
awful originally meant causing terror or dread, or frightening, inspiring reverential fearGod could be awful. The word did not simply mean very bad. Awful is a much older word, dating back to Old English, the language spoken in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Instead, the modern sense of awful meaning very bad dates to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The earliest citation of this sense in the Oxford English Dictionary is by Thomas Green Fessenden (1771-1837), a journalist, satirical poet, and early American political pundit. (Fessenden also wrote extensively about farming and gardening. Go figure.) In 1809, he penned a sentiment that is very familiar to us today:

https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/awesome-awful
And a play or meal could be awful, and that would be good. Why are you attempt to defeat any argument? Words change. Literally has changed a bit. Talk to the linguists at Oxford and tell them they don't understand how definitions evolve.

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ReturnOfDevsman
08/27/25 6:14:47 PM
#40:


It makes my head literally explode.

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Quezovercoatl
08/27/25 11:13:27 PM
#41:


GeraldDarko posted...
And a play or meal could be awful,
I assume you mean like 'awfully good'? It's the good there doing the heavy lifting
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DrizztLink
08/27/25 11:43:17 PM
#42:


No.

As in "full of awe."

The original definition.

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GeraldDarko
08/28/25 6:55:17 AM
#43:


Quezovercoatl posted...
I assume you mean like 'awfully good'? It's the good there doing the heavy lifting
No, just awful.

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