Did we change the definition of 'literally'?
F. Scott Fitzgerald did it (“He literally glowed”). So did James Joyce (“Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet”), W. M. Thackeray (“I literally blazed with wit”), Charlotte Brontë (“she took me to herself, and proceeded literally to suffocate me with her unrestrained spirits”) and others of their ilk.
But the fact that Charles Dickens used literally in a figurative sense ("'Lift him out,' said Squeers, after he had literally feasted his eyes, in silence, upon the culprit") doesn't stop readers from complaining about our definition. We define literally in two senses:
- in a literal sense or manner : actually
- in effect : virtually
Some of our readers are not happy about this. Here are a few of the comments left at this entry:
Definition 2: the dictionary is literally wrong.
This is literally the stupidest thing I've ever read.
I literally can't even.
Some people choose not to leave such comments on our site (perhaps they do not wish to hurt our feelings), but still want to make their displeasure clear. These people comment on other forums, as in this sample taken from a comment thread on dailykos.com:
Considering that Merriam-Webster has redefined “literally” to mean “figuratively,” I’m going with literally.
Our poor language, I’m figuratively about to hurl.
Agreed! How you you [sic] agree to accept (I’m looking at you craven dictionary editors!) a word that means the exact opposite? It’s unfathomably stupid.
Never trust anything but the OED...
It's fine to trust the OED, but you might want to check their definition first:
literally, adv. 1c. colloq. Used to indicate that some (freq. conventional) metaphorical or hyperbolical expression is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense: "virtually, as good as"; (also) "completely, utterly, absolutely."
—Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, Sept. 2011
Aaargh! That doesn’t seem very literal at all! The dark forces of "figurative-literalism" must have gotten to them, perhaps by blackmailing the editors. Let’s look at how some other current dictionaries define this word.
literally, adv. … 3.b. Used as an intensive before a figurative expression.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, 2016
literally, adverb … 2. (intensifier) ⇒ there were literally thousands of people
—Collins English Dictionary
Literally every modern dictionary includes a definition for the metaphoric or intensifying sense of the word literally. Why do we hate the English language so?
We don’t.