literally shocked his audience
January 8th, 2008 by Fitz
We’re not sure which episode from yesterday to highlight first, but we’ll start with one that we haven’t posted yet on The Caucus. And that’s the outpouring of anger and insults by former President Bill Clinton in talking about his wife’s chief rival, Senator Barack Obama, while at Dartmouth in the late afternoon.
He literally shocked his audience, by criticizing Mr. Obama and his campaign, pointing his finger and raising his already hoarse voice.
Don’t tase me, Bill!
Link: The Caucus: The New York Times Political Blog (Thanks, Ken and Scott)
See also: literally stunned
January 10th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Shock is in the dictionary meaning ‘to surprise’ or ‘to make feel upset’, so the word doesn’t have to be a metaphorical reference to electric shocks. The ‘literally’ here is most likely superfluous and isn’t brilliant writing, but it isn’t a literal error.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Unnecessary use is, in fact, misuse.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
This is an example where adding “literally” to a sentence does the opposite of what the word is supposed to do. Instead of providing clarity of the author’s meaning, it obscures it. If the author simply said the former President “shocked” his audience, we would presume that the author was trying to tell us that Clinton’s speech caused surprise and distress among audiene members.
We would be very unlikely to jump to the conclusion that, like the great shlocky cinema showman of the 1950s William Castle, Mr. Clinton had arranged to have electrical circuits placed within all the seats of the venue, and at a certain point threw a switch that sent electrical current into the posteriors of audience members (although, in Mr. Clinton’s case, we probably cannot rule out such a scenario!).
But by inserting the word “literally,” we are led to doubt ourselves, and wonder which of the several definitions of the word “shocked” the author intends. I’d suggest a word like “definitely” might work better in this sentence.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Bill tasing people. Heh. That figuratively cracks me up.
February 15th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Quoth Susanne Dunn:
Depends on your definition of the prefix “mis-”. Mis- usually means “wrong” or “incorrect”. As “unnecessary” is not really a synonym for “wrong” or “incorrect,” I say it is not misuse, but rather merely overuse.
April 16th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Lanny says,
>>I say it is not misuse, but rather merely overuse.
How about “abuse”?