literally couldn’t be worse taste
February 3rd, 2008 by Fitz
Bedroom furniture for young girls with the brand name Lolita has been withdrawn by Woolworths following complaints from parents.
…
“It has become a name that is synonymous with sexual precocity and the fact that it is tied to a girl’s bed - it literally couldn’t be worse taste.”
Link (Thanks, Christie Fremon)
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Perhaps they meant to say “literarily”.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
This is a correct usage, or at least has the potential to be. They very well may be of the opinion that there is not a single thing on earth in worse taste than sexualizing young girls.
February 4th, 2008 at 8:50 am
In which case, that would be an opinion, not a literal fact, yes? That is, it is certainly in poor taste, and certainly many would consider it morally wrong, but surely there are several things worse than sexualizing young girls.
(funny, my Firefox spell check says that ’sexualizing’ isn’t a word… weird.) =/
February 4th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
In fact, the book isn’t so much synonymous with “sexual precocity” as it is with pedophilia and rape, as told through the voice of a compulsive liar.
But I agree literally is wrong here - as there are many things worse to taste than books, or beds.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I guess one would have to taste the beds to be sure…
February 9th, 2008 at 4:47 am
This is one of the best blogs ever.
I make fun of one of my friends for using literally all the time, but I think I have a worse problem.
I use the word “however” in between sentences even when the second sentence doesn’t contradict the sentiment of the first sentence.
Something like:
“Bob woke up one morning to find himself on the floor. However, he was wearing a shirt.”
February 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for the blog. I’ll check it from now on. I find this trend of using “literally” to mean something like “really” or “seriously” to be very annoying.
Is there an entry where you trace when this trend started? It seems to me that it really mushroomed (…not literally, although mushrooms might be a good simile or metaphor for what’s going on here) just a couple years ago. From my memory, I saw it first mostly on late night talk shows, where some airheaded celebrity would misuse it.
Anyway, thanks again.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
The only thing more overused and misued than ‘literally’ is:
There’s (followed by a plural), as in ‘There’s three reasons why this is wrong…’
Start listening for it and it will drive you crazy.
Everyone LITERALLY says this one.
I would start a blog, but the amount of examples found would crash the system.
February 12th, 2008 at 3:32 am
What is even better is they use the phrase “tied to a girl’s bed”.
HA HA.
Pun intended?
February 28th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
“like”- i can’t stop saying the word “like”. it started as a joke, LIKE, valley girl