Word Nerd: This is Literally the Only Blog About the Word “Literally” You Will Ever Need to Read

Using it with a figurative statement is extending that, being playful with the language. Like, “No, really, my dad’s actually going to explode right here in front of me, showering me with bone fragments and viscera! Haha, it’s funny because I’m asserting an obvious untruth for effect!” Far from contradicting the primary sense, it actually depends on it, and we use, for example, actually and really the same way (without any complaint, oddly).

And – and regular readers of this column will find this familiar – it’s not even all that modern! Dryden used it as an intensifier of a true statement in 1687 (his “daily bread is litt’rally implor’d”), as did Pope in 1708 (“Euery day with me is literally another yesterday). The first recorded use with a metaphor is in Frances Brooke’s The History of Emily Montague, way back in 1769: “He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies.” And it didn’t end there. Jane Austen was “literally rocked in bed” in a stormy night; Mark Twain was “literally rolling in wealth,” and Louisa May Alcott’s land “literally flowed with milk and honey.” Dickens “literally feasted his eyes,” and in 1863, the actress Fanny Kemble “literally coined money.” This is an old, respected usage.

Basically, every schoolchild knows dick. That’s why they’re at school, obvs. And unfortunately, while they’re there, they’re learning formal Standard English (which is a useful thing to learn, of course, in moderation and in context), which of course means they’re in the grip of our old friends, the prescriptive grammarians. Hell, this one’s not even eighteenth century; the first condemnations of the practice appear just over a hundred years ago, such as in American journalist and editorialist Ambrose Bierce’s Write it Right in 1909: “It is bad enough to exaggerate, but to affirm the truth of the exaggeration is intolerable.”§ Even in terms of the modern prescriptive grammar rules I love to pick apart, this one’s frankly a Johnny-come-lately.

…And You’re Literally Wrong About the Primary Meaning (Sorry)

And of course, the “primary” meaning isn’t the original sense. Literally first meant “letter by letter.” It referred to actual written text, as in, “This is a literal copy of the manuscript,” or “I’ve written down literally what he said.”

And I’m not done. The sense you think of as the “correct” sense of the word exists because of the way most of us learn language, picking it up from hearing other people use words and inferring their meaning from context. People heard the word in use and interpreted literally to mean “exactly, truthfully,” and a new sense – one that would eventually totally eclipse the original – was born. Which is great! That’s how language evolves and changes. But it presents a terrible, wonderful irony.

Because while the pedants trying to shoot down the newer (ie. merely 250-year-old) usage generally declaim along the lines of, “it’s wrong to allow the language to be changed just because people get things wrong,” the fact is that’s exactly how the older, “correct” use of the word came about. The newer, more populist sense is a deliberate, playful distortion; the older sense favoured by the authorities is artless error become fact.

And that’s literally that.

Cheers,

David

As always, if you want to argue with me, or to chat about this shit, or to propose a topic for a future blog, let me know! Tweet us; Facebook us; let’s have an argument/chat.

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*Because of course.

†Or hate with a seething passion that keeps dragging them back to the blog to stare at the face of the enemy, which is pretty much the same thing.

‡Strictly speaking, the usage had been in there since 1903: “Now often improperly used to indicate that some conventional metaphorical or hyperbolical phrase is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense.” The change in 2013 was to call it “informal” rather than “improper.” World shaking.

**Which is ridiculous on the face of it. Language changes over time; I have a very good Old English dictionary at home, but I wouldn’t use it for the  crossword.

§So, you know, his argument is basically that he doesn’t like it.