I am Literally Disappointed

[glatt]

Bullshit. People look up words in a dictionary because they are unfamiliar with them and want to learn what they mean. Language evolves, but a dictionary shouldn't be reporting that evolution as it happens. It should be on a delay of at least 20 years. The only exception is when there are new words.

[infinite monkey]

i literally will think you're a moron if you say 'irregardless.'

i don't care what fads dictate to dictionaries.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

i literally will think you're a moron if you say 'irregardless.'

i don't care what fads dictate to dictionaries.

This!

[regular.joe]

This is literally the sickest thing I've heard all day! Awesome!

[Happy Monkey]

I think that people have been using 'literally' to mean 'figuratively' for literally 1000 years (by which I mean "more than 20 years").

[Nirvana]

I wish we were still using the word 'prithee' so that I could say, " I prithee you all to stop being so damn literal "

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., 2000

"For more than a hundred years, critics have remarked on the incoherency of using literally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of 'in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words.' In 1926, for example, H.W. Fowler cited the example 'The 300,000 Unionists . . . will be literally thrown to the wolves.' The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning of literally itself--if it did, the word would long since have come to mean 'virtually' or 'figuratively'--but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive, as in They had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended."

[DanaC]

Sorry can't resist:

'prithee, stop being so damn literal'
Stop, prithee, being so damn literal'

At a push you could say 'I prithee'

Usually, the 'I' was inferred, and there's no need for 'you' since that's included in the word ('thee')

*smiles*

[Flint]

Originally Posted by glatt

Bullshit.

Well. Don't hold back, buddy, tell me how you really feel.

Originally Posted by DanaC

At a push you could say 'I prithee'

What about, "I prithee the fool!"

[Nirvana]

[Nirvana]

Dana that was just a 'southern [USA] rendition of English English ...you all or the ever popular y'all I wanted to make sure to leave no one out. I prithee forgive me

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Flint

Well. Don't hold back, buddy, tell me how you really feel.

OK. "Bullshit" is not meant to insult you, bullshit is for the idea that a dictionary should put incorrect definitions down for words, just because some people use the word incorrectly out of ignorance.

If the incorrect usage was deliberate, to make a point and convey meaning, then I could see making a note of it, but it's pure ignorance.

[Clodfobble]

I just spent 10 minutes taking a customer satisfaction survey about a recent bank visit... and throughout the phone call, the poor kid kept asking about my "satis-fi-cation."

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by glatt

OK. "Bullshit" is not meant to insult you, bullshit is for the idea that a dictionary should put incorrect definitions down for words, just because some people use the word incorrectly out of ignorance.

If the incorrect usage was deliberate, to make a point and convey meaning, then I could see making a note of it, but it's pure ignorance.

To be fair, a lot of people do use it deliberately to make a point and convey meaning, specifically a particular kind of emphasis, subverting the word for comic effect.

Unfortunately, by including the new definition rather than simply noting this unorthodox use they give a licence to all the numpties who don't actually know the meaning and take away our god given right to pick them up on their ignorance.

[Lamplighter]

Dana, Isn't that how "exact same" has come about ?
... it is everywhere now, even in TV commercials.