About This Site
Misuse of the word “literally” gets my blood boiling (no, not literally). It started as a nit-picking distraction, grew to a frustrating obsession, and finally resulted in the creation of this blog.
What’s the problem?
According to the wonderful web site Common Errors in English:
“literally†has been so overused as a sort of vague intensifier that it is in danger of losing its literal meaning. It should be used to distinguish between a figurative and a literal meaning of a phrase. It should not be used as a synonym for “actually†or “really.â€
What do you hope to accomplish?
- Get a chuckle — sometimes these examples are mildly funny (at least to me, your mileage may vary)
- Educate — if I can stop one person from using literally inappropriately I have done my job
- Provide a Resource — this could be a good reference for English as a second language
- Make a little scratch from Amazon.com referrals.
- Become famous and appear on the Tonight show.
Categories
Examples are categorized as follows:
- Incorrect
- Incorrect usage of “literally”. For example, “I literally dropped dead when I heard the news”.
- Unnecessary
- Using “literally” when it is not needed. For example, “I literally lost hundreds of dollars in Vegas”.
- Correct
- A particular good example of using “literally”. For example, “I literally bought the farm” to mean an exchange of money (not a loss of life).
In addition, entries can be tagged with the following:
- Best Of
- These entries are our picks for the best or most amusing entries.
- Video
- These entries contain video clips (usually playable using the free Apple Quicktime player).
Who the hell are you?
Patrick Fitzgerald works with Internet technology, but also has a history in technical communication. He lives in Atlanta, GA, USA.
Amber Rhea has a degree in linguistics and lives in Atlanta, GA, USA.
