If "literally" means "figuratively " now what word can I use that means what literally used to mean?

figuratively

"literally doesn't mean "figuratively"--never heard such nonsense.

Have you been listening to Joe Biden? (He misuses "literally" more than anyone I can think of.)

4:59 wrote:

"literally doesn't mean "figuratively"--never heard such nonsense.

It unfortunately does now coz English is as the populace speaketh, and today’s instatwittersnap populace has decided thusly.

literally and unfiguratively, like redundant legalese as in aid and abet or cease and desist.

Insane

"Literally" has been used in that sense for 300 years. David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and John Dryden all used "literally" this way. Incidentally, it's not being used to mean "figuratively." Nobody is trying to point out that they're using a metaphor. It's being used as a generic hyperbolic adverb.

800 dude wrote:

"Literally" has been used in that sense for 300 years. David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and John Dryden all used "literally" this way. Incidentally, it's not being used to mean "figuratively." Nobody is trying to point out that they're using a metaphor. It's being used as a generic hyperbolic adverb.

So you mean using it like figuratively?

just sayin yo wrote:

800 dude wrote:

"Literally" has been used in that sense for 300 years. David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and John Dryden all used "literally" this way. Incidentally, it's not being used to mean "figuratively." Nobody is trying to point out that they're using a metaphor. It's being used as a generic hyperbolic adverb.

So you mean using it like figuratively?

That’s literally what’s he’s saying

Charles Bukowski wrote:

figuratively

Yup, I figuratively hear people using this incorrectly all the time!

800 dude wrote:

"Literally" has been used in that sense for 300 years. David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and John Dryden all used "literally" this way. Incidentally, it's not being used to mean "figuratively." Nobody is trying to point out that they're using a metaphor. It's being used as a generic hyperbolic adverb.

99.9% are using it “ignorantly.” Let’s not sugar coat it.

Actually

Really?

litdumb wrote:

800 dude wrote:

"Literally" has been used in that sense for 300 years. David Foster Wallace, Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and John Dryden all used "literally" this way. Incidentally, it's not being used to mean "figuratively." Nobody is trying to point out that they're using a metaphor. It's being used as a generic hyperbolic adverb.

99.9% are using it “ignorantly.” Let’s not sugar coat it.

Exactly. Rojo and his followers are no literary geniuses. They're not being poetic.

Greg is my hero wrote:

Ofa lon teh

This is a weird thread.

So let me clarify:

Top 20 out of 410 graduating class in HS

3 sport athlete

U-T scholar athlete nominee

Public service

Musician

Bachelor and Master

Educator

Child Care Professional

Runner, Walker

Inspiration

Innovator

Yeah...examine yourself before judging.

Stoppit 4.19 wrote:

Greg is my hero wrote:

Ofa lon teh

This is a weird thread.

So let me clarify:

Top 20 out of 410 graduating class in HS

3 sport athlete

U-T scholar athlete nominee

Public service

Musician

Bachelor and Master

Educator

Child Care Professional

Runner, Walker

Inspiration

Innovator

Yeah...examine yourself before judging.

And the word you want? It's definitively.

If you are smart, you'd know.

Big Bang Theory

Penny's boyfriend Kurt: "I haven't been to a comic book store in literally a million years."

Sheldon: "Literally? Literally? Literally a million years?"

Leonard: "Sheldon! Don't go there."

So yes, literally now means figuratively. There is no modern equivalent to figuratively.

It’s been changed in current vernacular. I’m constantly telling my daughter that she is using the word incorrectly. I don’t think it’s getting through.

Literally is the new “like”.