this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
995 points (98.3% liked)
memes
10398 readers
1779 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.
Sister communities
- [email protected] : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- [email protected] : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- [email protected] : Linux themed memes
- [email protected] : for those who love comic stories.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'd argue that literally isn't changing definitions. It still means literally. It's just that the most common usage of 'literally' is in a figurative or hyperbolic way. In fact, if the word DID change meaning to mean the opposite version, its usage would become much less meaningful since it's usage in a figurative way is done to show extreme figurative to the point that it might as well be considered literal, e.g "literally the worst day of my life"
The fact I've felt the need to clarify I mean actually literally before shows that the definition is losing it's purpose. Sure, sometimes it's clear that it's hyperbolic, but frequently there isn't a good way to know what meaning is intended, especially if it's online and/or you don't know their person speaking and their tendencies.