literally making a name for himself
From Buffalo Springfield to CSNY to a storied solo career, Neil Young has more than made his name in the rock game. Now, thanks to East Carolina University biologist Jason Bond, he’s also making a name for himself in science.
Literally.
Bond discovered a new species of trapdoor spider last year in Alabama and set about publishing a paper about it with Norman I. Platnick, curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. When it came time to name his discovery, Bond reached not into the annals of science but those of music, dubbing it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi (teach your children how to pronounce that). While it was Young’s diverse sonic offerings that initially attracted Bond to the idea, it was the Canadian legend’s track record on sociopolitics that clinched the deal.
Link (Thanks, Christie Fremon)
May 14th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
It sounds like they used it correctly. He did make the name, didn’t he?
May 14th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
@Kevin: I think it could be argued either way. Personally I think “literally make a name for yourself” doesn’t make sense in any way. Unless maybe you were cutting letters out of wood.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
This sounds pretty acceptable to me. I mean, if there’s any literal way to “make a name,” this would be it, right? The only problem I see is that he’s not making the name “for himself;” it’s this Bond fellow making it.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:39 am
“Making a name” for oneself is a metaphor for making oneself well-known/famous/in the limelight. Fitz is right - doing it literally is, as his example suggests, carving his name out of wood.
It does not make sense and is not an acceptable use of the word “literally”.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Nice image (and great blog!)
This one is not *as* incorrect as most. Although it is meaningless, they use “literally” to mean “there is some literalness (non-figurativeness) involved somewhere”
June 26th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Oh man, I’m not the only one who is peeved by the misuse of “literally”. I love you guys. Now I have to find a blog that tracks the misuse of “ironic”.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Although it may an acceptable use of literally, it just sounds too cheesy here. If it were a newscast, there would a hefty silence after and before literally and then the word literally would be said in a fake British accent.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
This usage is absolutely correct, albeit cheesy. It is understood that the metaphor can be taken more literally. The metaphor is that his name will be remembered, taken more literally, his actual name will go down in science. Taken completely literally , he would have made up a scientific name for himself. Making letters out of wood would NEVER be literally making a name for himself, as all he would be making was a name tag.
I (figuratively) wince in pain at the gross misuse of the language, but you guys are (figuratively) picking nits.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
To clarify: Unlike using “literally” when one means “figuratively” or “metaphorically” or incorrectly using it as an emphatic, the meaning of the piece is clearer by the inclusion of the word, and not obfuscated or cluttered by it. One could almost say that this is being figuratively literal, as opposed to being literally literal. I’m OK with that, and since I’m a word snob, youse guys are just being pejorative! -JK