this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2024
95 points (91.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26968 readers
1234 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

On accident

I kind of can't take people seriously when they say On accident, I don't know or care if its more or less grammatical, it sounds like a child sputtering in my mind. It should be By accident or accidentally

Tummy

Any adult has zero business saying this lol

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] candybrie@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago (2 children)

People who think anyone uses literally to mean figuratively are annoying and too caught up in their crusade to realize their take is idiotic. No one uses it to mean figuratively. People use it to emphasize regardless of the figurative nature of language. It's semantic drift that happens to most words that mean something similar to "in actuality" (e.g. really, actually). Even in other languages.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think the definition has even been updated to reflect this.

[–] candybrie@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Yeah. Dictionaries reflect popular usage. And I think literally has probably been in use in that sense nearly as long as it's been used to mean something really did happen that way.

[–] pathief@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I find if more confusing than annoying, at times. If the emphasizing is getting on the way of being clear, you should maybe use some other way to emphasize it.

"I'm literally broke" shouldn't be a statement open to interpretation, in my person opinion. The internet and lack of familiarity with strangers just aggravates the problem.

[–] candybrie@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

That's a valid opinion. That they're using it to mean "figuratively" is not.