• @somePotato
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    537 months ago

    I will never stop being mad that “literally” got a new dictionary definition that’s literally not literally

    • @[email protected]
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      237 months ago

      Maybe it would help if you knew there were more? Or maybe that would make it feel worse, but there are more. It’s a pretty common pattern in language for some reason, called “contronyms.” So literally can mean actually or figuratively, but others include clip (cut off or attach), oversight (to overlook, or to scrutinize closely), sanction (approve something or penalize it), or even fast (moving quickly or still, as in held fast). Context is key, people will adapt as meanings are ever shifting.

      • @[email protected]
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        117 months ago

        or, my favorite, in German “umfahren”

        can either mean “drive around”

        or “run over”

        • @arandomthought
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          27 months ago

          In writing, yes. But when spoken the emphasis is different. If the “fahren” is stressed, then you are driving around something (umFAHren). If the “um” is stressed (UMfahren), then you are talking about property damage or murder.

      • peopleproblems
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        47 months ago

        That, and then you have my 6-year old who uses “literally” to emphasize his statements. It’s pretty funny to listen for that word at my house. It becomes a game of

        Is it Literal?

        Is it figurative?

        Is it exaggerated?

        • @[email protected]
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          27 months ago

          In the car with my friend and his mom we used to play 20 questions. Over the years we just kept picking weirder and weirder shit. Like “the end of WW1” or “Freddy Mercury’s mustache’s leftmost whisker” or “this round of 20 questions that we are playing right now”.

          This went on from when we were like 6 to maybe 20. I think it’s where I learned respect for the precise meaning of words. We’d always try to look for the tiniest excuse to give a misleading but technically true answer, like he might ask “Is it a type of animal?” and the answer was his dog, which is “an animal” and not “a type of animal”, so I’d say no.

          We got really good at ferreting each other out on stuff like that.

          It’s a fun road trip game and it exercises your kid’s mind. Highly recommended.

    • @[email protected]
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      7 months ago

      Words matter. Think about life before and after the dictionary definition change.

      Changing literally to figuratively broke reality.

      It was changed September 2011.

      • Tlaloc_Temporal
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        27 months ago

        That’s not 2016, or 2020, or 2008, or 2001, or even 2012. Which reality break are you talking about?