Random Pet Peeve
Posted by CM under Random on Thu 3 May 2007
he use of the word “literally” to mean something other than, well, “literally.”
For instance, I was told today that “my head literally exploded.” Uh, no. Your head did not literally explode. It may have done so figuratively, but literal and figurative are opposites.
But using literally to mean something similar to “like, whoa” or “totally” has become surprisingly, shockingly common. Every time I hear it, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Which is wholly unreasonable because I know what the person means, and it’s used as often as not in the mistaken sense.
And the OED says: Now often improperly used to indicate that some conventional metaphorical or hyperbolical phrase is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense. (So, e.g., in quot. 1863.)
It’s been around a long time.
What random and unreasonable peeves do you entertain?
May 5th, 2007 at 1:35 am
I literally hate it when Simon Cowell begins a rude critique with the words, “I’m not being rude…”
May 5th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Snarky Guy told his wife: “I threw the papers back in her face.”
Snarky Guy’s wife told me: “Are you the girl he threw the papers at?”
I looked at Snarky Guy. He looked sheepish because he’d been caught in a Macho Exaggeration. So I said, “Figuratively, not literally.” And then they both looked at me like I was crazy.
Well, I tried to cover for his lying ass, anyway
May 8th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I hate, hate, hate seeing the word ‘entitled’ misused. Stories, novels, and movies are ‘titled’ and it kills me to read query letter after query letter where books are entitled ‘Best Novel Evah.’
Jeez, that felt good.
May 12th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
To be fair, Chris:
“Entitled” has two meanings. One is “to deserve.” The other is “the act of bestowing a title.” So you can entitle your own book. But you can’t entitle a work that is already titled. A work that has a title has been entitled in the past.
A query letter could very well claim to have entitled a book. But it really just sounds a little pretentious. Add a few hereby and therefores and it’s really overboard.