I Literally Just Sh*t My Pants Reading This

[FindingNamo]

What about "ever so very much"? When's that from? I love using that one.

[Jungle Red]

I love "from whence". I have a friend who uses the word "ironical".

That ironic song gets on my nerves. There is nothing ironic about it raining on your wedding day. It's unfortunate and inconvenient, but not ironic.

[FindingNamo]

I use the word "ironical" ironically, which I think is the canonical ironical.

[best12bars]

If literally can literally mean figuratively, then I think it's ironic that it rained on your wedding day.

Ironic can now mean interesting, coincidental, a bummer, AND it can also mean literally.

Figuratively speaking.

By the way, is there a drag queen named Merriam Webster?

[Jordan Catalano]

"By the way, is there a drag queen named Merriam Webster?"

Only if it were a 4 foot tall black guy who made you call him Ma'am.

[mjohnson2]

I don't see what the big deal is about this. A lot of people who speak english started saying "literally" in the figurative sense of the word. Enough people started doing this that when we hear the word "literally", we no longer actually think that it is true. This means that the definition has changed in our minds, and as the Merriam Webster dictionary is supposed to be a document of the english language, it makes sense that it would change as our language does.

[Jordan Catalano]

So because a bunch of half wits who don't have enough sense to know what a word means can't use it properly, the entire definition needs to be changed?

[best12bars]

It's all Merriam Webster's fault. I hate her.

[Reginald Tresilian]

The dictionary has always functioned as both a record and a corrective.

I literally can't think of a good reason to support the substandard use of this word. Literally. It doesn't fill a function not filled by other perfectly good and accurate words.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Screw Merriam Webster - they are not the arbiters of what is correct. They don't own the English language. Perhaps we need an English-language version of L'Académie française. Reginald, you can be president. FindingNamo, you can be chairman. I will supply the baked goods at meetings.

[FindingNamo]

A lot of people who speak english started saying "literally" in the figurative sense of the word.

These people are idiots, defined by Merriam-Webster's:

Full Definition of IDIOT

1
usually offensive : a person affected with extreme mental retardation
2
: a foolish or stupid person
— idiot adjective