This word is being overused, and the great bulk of the time, it's not only completely unneeded but redundant in a manner that makes the user sound moronic in their attempt to sound smart.

My wife and son have picked up this nonsense. I'm going to break them of it, one way or another. My son, who is seven, uses it many times a day. I have resorted to telling him "you said that word, now I have to ignore you. Redundant is redundant." He hates this, but not as much as I hate the proliferation of what amounts to a verbal tic.

This was posted in the Biden thread. The person who tweeted this could have let the whole statement stand as it was without tacking on "Literally." and it would have had the smarmy, smoldering effect he was looking for. Instead, he has to tack a beacon on the end to signify that he was being cutesy.



Why do people do this? When did this come into vogue? I know a few years ago, we were meming about people saying "literally Hitler." Was it really a thing that I didn't notice? Was it already a thing and just not blown to endemic proportions? It's everywhere.

Now, if you will, re-read this post and insert the word "literally" into every declaratory sentence. It doesn't work as a question, and that's not how they use it, but it doesn't take any effort to shoehorn it into every statement I've made in this post. Every statement. That's how people talk these days. Why?

I figuratively dropped my jaw reading this.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
…it's not only completely unneeded but redundant

Time for another grammar lesson with Weird Al…

Regarding this topic, a short time ago the department of redundancy department recently issued a memo about this.

This is literally the best post I've read today. I literally don't understand why these leftist don't realize that 23 other states literally have the same type of militia. They literally didn't read the full article about the militia. It's literally to respond to emergencies like hurricanes. Literally.

quote:

When did this come into vogue?

Circa the early 2000s? There is an episode of The King of Queens where Carrie (Leah Remini) takes someone (don't quite recall the actress, it may have been Debi Mazar) to task for the latter's misuse of the word. It comes up in YouTube's search terms but I can't find an actual video.

I had a teacher in the 5th grade who would absolutely chew your ass if you used the word literally or "like" incorrectly. I still think of her 30 years later when I hear people speak this nonsense.

"Like" is now synonymous with "said." "Literally" is now an emphasis word. The rest of us will have to literally get used to it, even if we don't like it.

This is driven by young women. The same group who destroyed "hither, whither, and thither" for the then-colloquial "here, where, there." You can always count on youthful females to screw up language, but what are you going to do? They've got the stuff we want.

Yes, it is a word crime, and the current use of the word demonstrates that you don't know what the word means. However, as sigcrazy points out, it is come to be a word to signal emphasis.

And we've been complaining about it for about three or four years now, so, I mean, like, literally, if I hear this complaint again, my head will literally explode.

Rob Lowe, in Parks & Rec was my first thought, on seeing the thread title:

People who use literally incorrectly make me want to figuratively puke.

“Like” used as a subculture identity word for emphasis has evolved and goes back a long way. Remember “Like, far out man!” In the 60s?

I believe that was picked up from Beatnik lingo from the 50s, some of which may have evolved from earlier jazz culture.

A linguist once said that language goes as teenage girls go, or something to that effect.

It’s like “up-talking” and “vocal fry”, which some blame on the Valley Girl period in California. Or the Kardasians.

Vocal fry, as commonly used, conveys the message that the speaker is bored
with and too cool for the mundane subject being discussed and that a dismissive inflection is necessary to show the speaker’s superiority and coolness.

This vocal expression of clueless snobbery and superiority, even if unintended, is distracting in the professional world. It doesn’t go well in sales or customer service. It doesn’t sound well between employees. It sounds disrespectful to the listener.

I ignored it from my young employees as I understood most of them were speaking the patois of their generation and not being disrespectful.

Hell, even newsreaders, reporters and “spokespersons” are guilty of it now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: maxdog,

I watched a short vid yesterday of Ramsey cooking fish and chips. He said “literally” literally 46 times in 10 minutes. every other sentence literally had literally in it.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I watched a short vid yesterday of Ramsey cooking fish and chips. He said “literally” literally 46 times in 10 minutes. every other sentence literally had literally in it.

He is a cook and not an English major. It literally gets under my skin.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I watched a short vid yesterday of Ramsey cooking fish and chips. He said “literally” literally 46 times in 10 minutes. every other sentence literally had literally in it.

You could start a drinking game, you literally take a shot of cooking sherry every time he says literally.. literally

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Time for another grammar lesson with Weird Al…

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Gv0H-vPoDc" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Very clever and funny song.

It reminds me of the time when I was teaching at a local Adult education facility. My boss hired a new instructor and wanted him to work with me on my classes, not only to help him get started on teaching, but also for me to evaluate him as a teaching candidate. The guy before him that she hired washed out. That was for the best too!

Anyway after having him help with my classes, I realized that he really knew the subject matter. We taught various Industrial Electricity classes. The only problem was his use of the English language. He was not very good with proper English, its use and meaning.
I really got to liking the guy and admired his technical knowledge as well as the fact that he was a gun nut too. So, to break it to him gently, I had him make up a test for a PLC class I was teaching. I took the test before I let him give it to the class the following week. I showed him that by wording questions the wrong way, he could get various right answers to one question. He was starting to clean up his act when I retired. He still teaches there and we still shoot together.

I wonder if the grammarians before us - who are probably mostly dead now - felt the same way about the proliferation of really. As long as I've been alive, really has been common & accepted usage. E.g.,

I want that gun. I really want it. It was really awesome to shoot.

Nowadays I hear, 'I literally want it. It was literally awesome to shoot.'

Another common word crime I'm sick of is surreal. Winning the championship or having a wonderful date are not surreal. Wandering around Burning Man high on LSD is surreal.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I watched a short vid yesterday of Ramsey cooking fish and chips. He said “literally” literally 46 times in 10 minutes. every other sentence literally had literally in it.

You could start a drinking game, you literally take a shot of cooking sherry every time he says literally.. literally

I’ll have to watch a video of Gordon and see how bad it is, but if Konata88’s count is accurate, you might as well just chug the whole ten minutes straight, I don’t think one could blast 48 shots that fast.

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:

I wonder if the grammarians before us - who are probably mostly dead now - felt the same way about the proliferation of really. As long as I've been alive, really has been common & accepted usage. E.g.,

I want that gun. I really want it. It was really awesome to shoot.

Nowadays I hear, 'I literally want it. It was literally awesome to shoot.'

Another common word crime I'm sick of is surreal. Winning the championship or having a wonderful date are not surreal. Wandering around Burning Man high on LSD is surreal.

You can add "awesome" to that list of words. Really, you can literally do that. It would be awesome.