Literally

and can't literally be used in place of virtually (which is not literal, obv.) when it relates to effect?

why can't monsters get along with other monsters?

Nice.

can't you use 'literally' ummm not literally?

But why use it to mean completely the opposite of what it means? Why add a word to a metaphor that means 'this is not a metaphor'? 'Invariably' is annoying like this - people keep using it to mean 'often' instead of 'absolutely every time, without variation'.

"i literally shat my pants"

umm... are you sure?

http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/

I remember a physics gcse class many years ago where my teacher told us that if we didn't do X in the exam, we'd literally be throwing marks down the drain.

There was a guy in the class called Mark and the idea of throwing him (and others like him obv.) down a drain was rather appealing.

was that deliberate?

TS: literally vs. it's academic

I mean umm, No. If only I were that clever.

FUFUFUFUFUFUFUFUFU!!!!

unless- we can get child prisoners to work somehow. hmmmm.

Just heard someone talking about the ring around Saturn which they've just recorded the existence of, on radio 4: said ring proves a hypothesis about one of Saturn's moons. I didn't hear the details of the hypothesis because I was too busy marvelling at the description of the several-million-miles-across ring as being "literally the smoking gun"

i watched a documentary film the other night where the smoking gun was literally in the ring around uranus

When I saw that story about Saturn this morning, I literally thought "I bet some people will be disappointed it's not Uranus"

happy literally as long as it's not mars

"Exactly."

actually

rectally

ah i see, i was looking at it as ...literally locking people... up, my bad

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-08/jones-chastises-critics-of-advertisers/4300268

"These people, through literally clogging up phone lines, email systems, Facebook and everything else, they really are making it in some cases almost impossible for these businesses to continue to function," he said.

From this news item about a woman mistakenly identified as pregnant by an airline - "my jaw literally fell on the floor"

(implied "literally"?)

This condition is becoming particularly severe for the group that economists call younger millennials: the young adults who entered the job market in the wake of the recession, a period in which the unemployment rate among 20- to 24-year-olds reached 17 percent, when graduate school competition grew more fierce and credit standards tightened. Many also saw their parents struggle through a pay cut, a job loss or another economic disruption during the recession.

These troubles, many economists fear, left serious scars, and not just psychic ones.

I was just thinking, if you "literally dwarf" someone, does that mean you turn them into a dwarf?

http://oi43.tinypic.com/9ulzlu.jpg

cool

WHAT

i just literally shit my pants at that

and i mean that literally

as in, i feel very strongly about that

Usage Note: For more than a hundred years, critics have remarked on the incoherency of using literally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of "in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words." In 1926, for example, H.W. Fowler cited the example "The 300,000 Unionists ... will be literally thrown to the wolves." The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning of literally itself--if it did, the word would long since have come to mean "virtually" or "figuratively" but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive, as in They had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended.

I am literally tearing the skin off of my face and throwing it at the computer screen

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/literally?s=t

literally an intensive

descriptivists win again!
http://www.hdwpapers.com/thumbs/charlie_brown_happy_wallpaper-t2.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/6E6B8B4E-D25F-4130-A55D-701988CB912F-339-0000001A8A9067BA_zps3fd3354a.jpg

sweet domain name tho

aa.com/literallyflybetter

they used it correctly!

what does "quite literally" mean, though? "actually literally" or "completely literally"?

that copy reads like: "hey, look, we're using 'literally' in the literal sense here, not figuratively as an intensive."

'you would be surprised how literally'

literally literally

what does it mean to literally raise the bar

The bar, it is in the air. When once it was on the ground.

Problem is that if you do read that sentence with 'literally raising the bar' actually being literal, it stops making sense. 'We're quite literally raising the bar' is fine. Adding '...on what flying should be' only makes sense if you're being figurative.

"We are serving you alcohol while in the air on what flying should be"? Nope.

"Our booze is served during the journey on what flying should be"? Nuh-uh.

"Look how high our drinks are on what flying should be"? Noooooo.

maybe there is a giant immobilizing metal bar resting on one of their planes and "what flying should be" is yodaspeak for "what should be flying"

it makes sense, but it's pretty corny... reminds me of some bad pun Bob Saget would use on America's Funniest Home Videos. i read it like "we're literally raising the bar! on what flying should be". cue goofy music and canned audience laughter as a drunk passenger stumbles around and vomits on an old lady.

* laughs *

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPz4mKHd0FE

The thing is that when I hear the world 'literally' used like this in the wild, person is nearly always saying something enthusiastic, impressed, excited or good humoured

i thought this was a good one. there is a hotel in boston whose restaurant is called the ruby room, and suitably the decor is all red. the section for corporate events is headed:

Meetings that will have you seeing red. Well, not literally.

so precisely and completely wrong, really an accomplishment

idk you could be blind & irascible

Palm trees, ivory beaches and a languid lifestyle: to outsiders, the South Pacific lives up to its paradise image. But the islanders themselves are weighed down by problems – literally. The region has the world's highest obesity rates, along with associated chronic diseases.

it means "listen to me"

literally one month ago

https://ig.me/am8rz2YnB48osC

The misuse of "literally" is most often an attempt at hyperbole, in the mistaken belief that overstating the truth makes one's misstatements stronger and more persuasive.

LITERALLY vs ACTUALLY vs Just say it vs Shut up

posters itt are literally cops

literal lol