Literally

You know I'm a literature major when the incorrect use of common words bugs the heck out of me. I wont mention the word 'Ironic' - that's for another blog - but instead I'll focus on a poor, unfortunate word that's been unnecessarily turned into a hyperbole.

Literally, obviously, comes from the root word 'literal', which comes from the Latin word 'literalis' which means "of or pertaining to letters." The idea, as the word was formed, was that when a text was copied literally, it was copied letter by letter, to be as correct as possible. It's a bit ironic surprising, then, that the definition becomes figurative, having jumped from talking about letters to talking about whole ideas and abstract nouns, when the actual definition of the word is the opposite of figurative.

When something is literal, it is exactly as stated. We don't tend to use the term 'literal' a lot, because generally when we say something, it's assumed to be exactly as we stated it, unless we're being sarcastic or figurative or using some sort of idiom, which is the also implied by common knowledge (such as when I tell people, "Well, that sounds fun") or intonation (Depending on how you say it, "Thanks a lot" can mean two different things). The word 'literal' then generally only comes into play when we're referring to something or someone else, as "they were being too literal" or "I thought it was meant in a literal sense."

We never use the term "literal" to mean "figurative." It wouldn't make any sense. So then why do so many people use the term "literally" to mean "figuratively?" "She literally devours every piece of music I give her," or "cars were literally flying down the road."

It's true!

In most cases, I wouldn't advocate the idea of using the term "figuratively" instead of "literally," (such as "cars were figuratively flying down the road") because that just sounds weird, and is unnecessary. The term in these cases is an intensifier; by saying 'I literally', people actually mean "Listen close because this was intense [or shocking, or awe-inspiring, or any other intense emotion] and get goosebumps just thinking about it," or something like that.

The word 'really' is an intensifier. "He was really fast" means the same thing, literally, as "he was fast," but adding the word 'really' in there makes the sentence more intense. 'Really' has been used too much, however, so people are turning to the word 'literally' to make their sentences even more intense (similar to how the intensifying terms "awesome" or "epic win" have become overused lately). Saying 'cars were flying down the road' just doesn't give you the same hurried feeling as they "were literally flying down the road."

However, the word 'literally' should not be used as an intensifier, even though scores of people want to make it such. Why?

• "He literally has the heart of a lion." ("No, really, he collects really weird animal organs")
• "We were literally jumping for joy!" ("Seriously, actually jumping up and down, we couldn't help ourselves!")
• "I was literally rolling in money" ("I actually withdrew half a million in ones just so I could roll around in it and see how it felt.")
• "My mother was literally heartbroken." ("I'm serious. That's why she had surgery last year. Don't worry, though, she's fine now.")

When we use 'literally' as an intensifier, we can't use it the way it's supposed to be used, and a clarifier. We have to explain that no, we actually did bite our tongue, and now it's bleeding, or no, we didn't get married, we've just been learning how to tie complex knots.

Literally is supposed to take a sentence that has multiple meanings, generally metaphoric, and clarify that the intended meaning is the literal one. If 'literally' was only ever used to clarify our meaning, we wouldn't have this confusion with the figurative, and our language would be that much easier.