DirkMcCallahan@lemmy.worldtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on?
52·
27 days agoThe word “literally” has been forever ruined by people who use it to mean “figuratively.” Worse, there is now literally no way to actually convey the original meaning of the word “literally” in a concise, clear way.
You have to say something like, “A is literally 10 times bigger than B…and I mean that ACTUALLY literally.” And then people will STILL assume that you’re speaking figuratively.
I’m fine with language evolving; my issue is that there used to be a word that succinctly conveyed a particular idea, and now there is no way to concisely convey that idea in English.
“Gay” changing its meaning isn’t the same thing, because there are still plenty of ways of saying “happy” in English.