literally freezing to death
January 3rd, 2008 by Fitz
It’s the groggy, nerve-sizzling season on the trail, and forget the attack ads and last-minute scrapping. Any candidate will attest that the epic fight now is against sleep deprivation, the gaffe-inducing monster that looms over every campaign in its final hours.
“We had 300 people outside, literally freezing to death,†Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton marveled on Tuesday before a crowd in Iowa City. (No deaths were reported, in fact.)
Link (Thanks, Hope!)
Update: based on Senator Clinton’s performance in the Iowa caucuses, maybe her supporters did freeze to death after all.
January 4th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Yes! I literally (literally) have a folder where I had been keeping misuses of “literally” for quite some time with the thought that I’d start a blog at some point that included them. Now I don’t have to! I’ll just send them to you
January 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Now, now. Every second they spent outside, they were closer to a death by freezing. Therefore, Ms. Clinton is correct in stating that her supporters were “literally” freezing to death. You’re reacting as if she had said, “They literally froze to death,” which obviously they didn’t do.
Signed, Madeleine Albright
January 4th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
It all depends on what the meaning of the words
had, literally , and too are.
Figuratively Literally Sincerely Yours,
Mr. Bill Clinton
January 5th, 2008 at 6:42 am
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080105.html
another comic with the correct usage.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Ah, Maddy, you’re confusing the literal meanings of ‘to’ and ‘toward.’ If my school-age kid assured me he had indeed gone TO school when in fact he had merely (though literally) gone TOWARD school it would indicate his future might lie (literally) in politics. Ms. Clinton’s supporters were literally freezing ‘toward’ death but according to reports none literally reached the indicated destination during that time.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Eddie Murphy’s performance at the dinner table in “The Nutty Professor” was literally unbelievable.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Ha! Love it! And congratulations on the Taranto-lanche.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Wow. This site rocks! I wish I had thought of this. John Edwards misused “literally” in the debate this weekend in New Hampshire too (forget the exact quote but it may have been something about childrens’ education)…minutes after I was making fun of my friend for his constant misuse of “literally.” Some people are saying that “literally” is a “pendulum word” where its constant misuse is gradually going to make it mean it opposite, but I stand firm that it should be used correctly! Thanks for this site, I will be visiting often!!!
January 8th, 2008 at 4:16 am
It’s called a figure of speech. The literalry is just to put an emphisis on how cold it was. If we held our politicians up to perfect gramatical standerds where would Bush be?
January 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[...] ‘literally’. Hardly a reputable news source, then. (In case you’re interested, here’s the original article.) The good news for Mike Huckabee in New Hampshire is that his appearances with Chuck Norris are [...]
January 8th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Edwards’ comment was that big corporations are “literally stealing our children’s futures.” Which, if he’s saying they’re stealing $ from our kids, then is misuse of the word literal. However he DOES like to say that health insurance companies kill kids, in which case his usage would be correct.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Consider also, this.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Ouch! Political commentary on Literally, A Weblog?
January 9th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Since language is political, political commentary on L.A.W.L. seems perfectly natural to me.