literally gobsmacked
August 31st, 2006 by Fitz
Natasha and Erik write:
“When I first walked into the marvellous creation that is the opera house built for Phantom in The Venetian, I was literally gobsmacked.”
~Andrew Lloyd Webber
From the souvenir program at the new Phantom of the Opera extravaganza in Las Vegas. Perhaps he was staring a little too blatantly at a chorus girl?
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Is this really incorrect usage? The definition of gobsmacked is ‘astounded’ or ‘flabbergasted.’ The etymology suggests the idea of being smacked in the mouth, but the actual denotation of the word simply means to be very very surprised. As to whether or not Andrew Lloyd Webber was really that surprised at the extravagent opera house, I cannot say for certain, but I don’t think it is too far-fetched to suppose him so.
I will say, though, that the idea of a chorus girl smacking him in the mouth is hilarious.
December 11th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Christie brings up an interesting issue- if gobsmacked does indeed simply mean astounded, then what would he have been if he wasn’t “literally gobsmacked”? Metaphorically astounded?
January 31st, 2007 at 6:38 am
Using “literally godsmacked” removes the figurative meaning of “godsmacked” but rather means he was actually smacked-by-the-hand-of-god. Like using the term “on fire” which has figurative meaning of being “on a roll”, but when you say, I was “literally on fire”…you get the picture.
February 14th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Of course, “literally” is all too often misused, as if it were for emphasis, i.e., “a literal flood of invitations came my way.” Similar to modifiers applied to “unique,” as in “very unique” or the egregious “most unique,” reflects a poor command of the mother tongue.