{"id":5380,"date":"2012-12-17T14:07:48","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T22:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?p=5380"},"modified":"2015-03-10T10:02:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T17:02:57","slug":"what-i-literally-would-have-given-my-staff-for-christmas-if-i-figuratively-still-had-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2012\/12\/17\/what-i-literally-would-have-given-my-staff-for-christmas-if-i-figuratively-still-had-one\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Literally Would Have Given My Staff for Christmas (If I Figuratively Still Had One)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

WWWSD?<\/p>\n

What would<\/em> William Safire<\/a> do?<\/p>\n

The misuse of \u201cliterally\u201d when the speaker or writer means \u201cfiguratively\u201d is right up there with employing \u201cimpact\u201d as a verb (when not speaking of a molar or a colon or a rogue meteor striking Earth) instead of \u201caffect,\u201d or \u201cover\u201d when one literally<\/em> means \u201cmore than.\u201d It\u2019s even more grating than the perennial misuse (or mis-type) of \u201ctheir\u201d instead of \u201cthere.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was considering getting a literal tattoo of the figurative grammatical sin, but these t-shirts might be a better choice.<\/p>\n

You can find yours at SNORGTEES.com<\/a> for $19.95 in men\u2019s and women\u2019s styles and sizes.<\/p>\n

So, about this literally\u2026Minnesota Public Radio reminded us on its Grammar Grater<\/em> program that:<\/p>\n

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English<\/em>, literally<\/strong> means \u201cin a literal way or sense.\u201d The dictionary goes on to define literal<\/strong> as \u201cthe most usual or basic sense of the word.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oxford Dictionary of Current English<\/em> also tells us that the word literally<\/strong> is used to add emphasis\u2014and in those cases, the word is not intended to be taken literally. Fowler\u2019s Modern English Usage<\/a><\/em> calls this secondary use of literally<\/strong> a weakened sense of the word. The Associated Press Stylebook<\/a><\/em> also advises against using literally <\/strong>this way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more of the Grammar Grater\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>report or listen to the podcast HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And finally, the video below is lit\u2019rally<\/em> the best example of the over- and misuse of \u201cliterally\u201d we can think of without getting ourselves into trouble (or jackpotting one of our favorite Canadians.)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F9GVKxSiQVM<\/a>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The misuse of “literally” when the speaker or writer means “figuratively” is right up there with employing “impact” as a verb (when not speaking of a molar or a colon or a rogue meteor striking Earth) instead of “affect,” or “over” when one literally means “more than.” It’s even more grating than the perennial misuse (or mis-type) of “their” instead of “there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1349],"tags":[1342,1343,847,1344,1345,1346,1347,1348,1350,1351],"class_list":["post-5380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-two-cents","tag-a-dictionary-of-modern-english-usage","tag-ap-stylebook","tag-arts","tag-associated-press-stylebook","tag-impact","tag-literally","tag-oxford","tag-style-guide","tag-william-safire","tag-word"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I Literally Would Have Given My Staff for Christmas (If I Figuratively Still Had One)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The misuse of "literally" when the speaker or writer means "figuratively" is right up there with employing "impact" as a verb (when not speaking of a molar or a colon or a rogue meteor striking Earth) instead of "affect," or "over" when one literally means "more than." 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