to get unnaturally enraged when i see the words "literally" and "random" misused by just about everyone these days?

[mayorquimby]

like when people say "i was in a bar and i randomly bumped into john" that's not f'ing random that's a coincidence.
or people saying things like "i literally died when i saw him/he literally threw the rule book out the window" when they neither passed away nor did someone fling an actual rule book of some kind out an open window.

By onager on Tue 07-Oct-08 13:36:14
'literally' is just WRONG. They are not saying what they meant to say.

Sorry, the fact that you know what they meant to say is an indication of the fact that they ARE saying what they meant to say.

What they are saying doesn't agree with what the DICTIONARY thinks they are saying, but society understands the new meaning perfectly well.

Society doesn't always understand the new meaning, though, because unless it is something where it clearly can't be the old meaning you're left wondering if they mean the old one or new one.
I've quite often had to write 'do you really mean literally?' on student essays where it's something that would be quite surprising if literally true but then that very surprisingness would be the reason why you would feel the need to say 'literally' if it was

Totally agree with OP but "I was sat.." is the expression which really gets on my nerves. Did someone really lift you up and plonk you down somewhere? No? It's "I was sitting" then.
I fear I am fighting a losing battle on that one..

Language changes, literally (tee hee!)

Kathy - agreed it can sometimes be confusing.

Also I am pedantic about language in formal settings like essays and CVs and things. I think part of the job of the person writing the essay is to show that they understand current formal grammar/spelling/syntax/usage. If they fail to demonstrate that then they've failed in part of their aim.

But I just don't think that you can (or should) apply formal language rules to informal settings like pub conversations.

But the confusion is still potentially there in the pub conversation, isn't it? 'I literally pissed myself....' etc.

Actually I agree with you mostly about language change - I love it when some cool new word pops up to fill a gap. 'Literally' really bugs me though, not sure why....

theyoungvisiter - you might understand that by "literally" they mean "figuratively" - but doesn't that just mean that we don't have a word that means "literally" any more?

It's irritating when people use 'literally' for emphasis without bothering to stop and think about what they are literally saying.

'Randomly bumped into John' just takes me back to school physics (or was it chemistry?) - I have this image of person doing the bumping and John as atoms in Brownian motion. (Although I have probably mangled the science hopelessly here.)

DS1 now says, whe narrating happenings, "I literally fell off my chair - no, Mum, I mean literally, not figuratively... I really did fall off."

literally has been used in this way for at least 50 years so not exactly new therefore acceptable use

i like the use of random as in how random is that or uh random or what

I am guilty of using random in this (obviously hugely offensive) way . Don't get the 'literally', though.

Can we add 'basically' to your list?

what about the prolific use of "unnaturally enraged" can one be "naturally" enraged then

i dislike "innnit"

I see the problem now. Since people use literally for emphasis they need to learn to swear

Just replace literally with your favorite curse and it makes sense again.

It works for "unnaturally enraged" too

lots of my sentences seem to end blabla er or whatever

i didnt realise this until bf picked me up on it

now i am painfully aware

or "do you know what i mean" as punctuation makes me want to shout NO i dont

"what about the prolific use of "unnaturally enraged" can one be "naturally" enraged then"

point taken.but i think you can be naturally enraged by something that actually matters aparthide/famine/genocide where as i see my rage as unnatual as it is probably quite out of proportion with the injustice i am suffering.so it's not natural for me to devote such energy to being pissed off becase the person i work with uses random to describe a night of going to the pub,followed by a club followed by an after party just because every minute detail had not been pre-planned when there is a very logical and evident process of how each event came to happen and pretty much 90% of people who went out that weekend did very similar things.
also the fact that everyone in her conversations seem to be sitting on turntables because evey single time they ay soething it's a case of
"so i turned to her and said....then she turned to me and said.... so i leterally just turned around and said...etc etc|

I hate this too.
Also the overuse of "scary" to mean "unexpected"
"It's scary how good I am at playing Monopoly"
Really? You must scare quite easily!

YANBU
In a similar vein, overuse of "obviously" drives me crazy too.

theyoungvisitor you made me laugh, turnips and swedes are responsible for a never ending argument between DH and I (one of us scottish and one english).

ahh - the marital politics of vegetables! DH and I have nearly divorced over the correct way to chop onions so I can quite see that actually in a marriage the definition of a turnip IS worth getting upset over.

Perhaps you could agree to call it rutabager instead, or whatever the US word is? (can't quite remember!)

Yes, what we need is a word that means, "this is a metaphor/exaggeration, I want to emphasise my comparison, therefore I will tell you that my metaphor/exaggeration is true to underline how apt the comparison is." Literally has obviously come to fill that gap - now we need a new word to fill the gap left by literally.

Maybe we use alternative spellings - as in "I litrallee pissed myself". "I've got litrallee, like, no money at all".

Then literally could be left for those of us with cut glass accents and an understanding of the finer points of pedantry, hee hee.

ending a sentence with 'dyou know what i mean' is an invitation to agree.

i say innit. i say it sort of jokingly now cause it was part of my vocabulary growing up on the mean streets of london. innit.

do people not use alternative words to describe stuff to increase the comedy value of a statement? stating that youre really good at monopoly bluntly is self important and a bit dullerama, no? saying its 'scary' somehow makes the whole thing more lighthearted and less prattish.

[muses]

get thee to pedants' corner