Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be sick of the incorrect use of 'literally'

22 replies

memoo · 28/04/2010 14:39

A few recent examples,

"I literally died!" erm no you didn't because you're stood here talking to me now

"I am literally speakless" then why the feck are you still talking

ahhhh I know its slightly irrational but it makes me cross!!!

OP posts:
Condensedmilkaddict · 28/04/2010 15:46

Yanbu

It's misused literally all the time.

Another is ironic. Most of the time when people say 'oh it's so ironic' - it isn't actually.

pagwatch · 28/04/2010 15:47

I recently overheard a young man exclaim that he had 'literally shat himself'

and

ProfYaffle · 28/04/2010 15:51

YABU - I love mis-use of 'literally', makes me ROFL (literally)

PuppyMonkey · 28/04/2010 15:54

speakless I am literally having kittens at your spelling.

Bluesunday · 28/04/2010 15:54

Can I add "that's so random!", please?

DorotheaPlenticlew · 28/04/2010 15:56

You should've put this in Pedants' Corner.

DP has noticed that radio sports commentators seem to commit this crime more than anyone else. Have to say he has a point, they do seem really prone to it. In fact, isn't there a whole category of Colemanballs focusing on "literally"?

StealthPolarBear · 28/04/2010 15:56

as well as the OP, why are "literally", "actually" and "basically" so over used?
"Random" and "scary" (as in "it's scary how good I am at table tennis" ) are slowly catching up

ilovemydogandmrobama · 28/04/2010 15:58

One of my colleagues had a big bell on his desk and would hit it every time someone said the word, 'basically'

pagwatch · 28/04/2010 15:58

I am not sure why but
"its scary how good I am at table tennis " just made me ROFL. Literally of course

BlauerEngel · 28/04/2010 16:05

Well, you could stick your fingers down your throat and then you could claim in all honesty that the subject literally makes you sick.

cornsilk · 28/04/2010 16:08

can I add specifically to the numpty list- I hear it a lot at work. I also want to suggest that we have a nasty punishment for people who say pacific instead of specific.

memoo · 28/04/2010 16:10

I am literally dying of embarrassment at my spelling in my OP

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 28/04/2010 16:13

i am actually laughing. basically at you. literally pointing.
(don't worry, pedants, i pointed at the screen)

kitcat1977 · 28/04/2010 16:13

'I could literally eat a horse.'

Oh, I'd love to watch

diddl · 28/04/2010 16:17

I thought it had become acceptable to use literally in this way?

So perhaps annoying but not literally incorrect?

MadamDeathstare · 28/04/2010 16:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OtterInaSkoda · 28/04/2010 17:09

LOL at the lad who literally shat himself

I am literally sick of the misuse of literally. So much so that my keyboard is quite clogged up at the mo. Please excuse me....

pagwatch · 28/04/2010 17:12

OOh Madame. Was it you who got all hoity about John Simm as the master saying he would decimate the population but then realised he did actually mean one in ten.
For some reason I loved that pedantry petard moment

CagedBird · 28/04/2010 18:25

YABU I love the blasted word, I think there's a rise on all words that end in ...ally, and it's good because it goes with my accent I think the one I hear most is "I literally pissed myself laughing". By the way op literally pissing myself laughing at your spelling (well if you are going to be a pedant

howmuchdidyousay · 28/04/2010 19:09

OP just to add to your woes,I am goinf to tell you that the OED lists
literally

? adverb 1 in a literal manner or sense. 2 informal used for emphasis (rather than to suggest literal truth).

So on the basis of this dictionary definition,they are literally right and YA literally BU !!

DorotheaPlenticlew · 28/04/2010 20:49

Ah, but the OED, like all good dictionaries, is descriptive rather than prescriptive.

Jajas · 28/04/2010 20:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread