''Literally'' is an English

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...

meaning "in a literal sense or manner" or an intensifier which strengthens the associated statement. It has been used as an intensifier in English for several centuries, though recently this has been considered somewhat controversial by linguistic prescriptivists. The use of 'literally' as an intensifier is recognized as valid by most dictionaries of English and has been used by authors such as

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

and

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

History

The first known use of the word ''literally'' was in the 15th century, or the 1530s. The use of the word as an intensifier emerged later, at the latest by 1769, when Frances Brooke wrote the following sentence:

As an intensifier

Despite common perception to the contrary, the use of an intensifier does not mean "figuratively" and is not an

auto-antonym A contronym or contranym is a word with two Opposite (semantics), opposite word sense, meanings. For example, the word ''wikt:original, original'' can mean "authentic, traditional", or "novel, never done before". This feature is also called enanti ...

; ''literally'' as an intensifier cannot be lexically substituted for ''figuratively'' while keeping the meaning of the sentence the same, and instead it serves as a generic intensifier. Its use as an intensifier dates back to the 1700s, and only since the early 20th century has its use as an intensifier been controversial. In 1909, the following entry was included in a blacklist of literary faults: Opponents state that this usage is contrary to its original meaning, that it is nonsensical for a word to mean two opposite things despite the abundance of such words in languages, that the use of the word ''literally'' as an intensifier can be substituted by other words ("‘absolutely", "definitely", "unquestionably"), and that "it makes the speaker look ridiculous". Paul Brians stated in ''Common Errors in English Usage'': "Don’t say of someone that he ‘literally blew up’ unless he swallows a stick of dynamite." The notion that its use as an intensifier is an "error" is rejected by scholars of language, who typically view arguments against the use of ''literally'' as an intensifier as either an etymological fallacy or fundamental misunderstanding of how languages develop. Proponents state that this usage has been well-attested since the 18th century. The authors of the Merriam Webster dictionary write: "The use of ''literally'' in a fashion that is hyperbolic or metaphoric is not new—evidence of this use dates back to 1769" and "the fact that so many people are writing angry letters serves as a sort of secondhand evidence, as they would hardly be complaining about this usage if it had not become common."

In popular culture

In 2014,

CollegeHumor Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout (streaming platform), Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropou ...

made a skit titled "The Boy Who Cried Literally", which parodies the alleged overuse of the word.

References

{{reflist English words Linguistic controversies