I Love You, Literally

My head will literally explode if I hear one more person use the adverb “literally” incorrectly. It will be quite the mess to clean up. Fortunately, though, my brains will blend right in with the other off-white mushy substances (yogurt, oatmeal, aged banana) my toddler regularly spills on the floor. The tiles could probably use a bit of gray mixed in with the beige foods. I’ll simply clean it up with my Supermop, scrubbing up bits of brain as if heads explode everyday. And the way people use that phrase, you’d think they do!

Literally means “in actuality.”

Correct usage: “I literally had 50 content articles to write last week.” (They were short… but back in my magazine days, I never thought I’d make such a pronouncement.)

Incorrect usage: “I literally made like a million dollars on that project.” (Ha-ha. I wish.)

Literally has recently evolved to mean: “I’m being melodramatic and exaggerating for effect.” I forget where I read it but a professional blogger and grammar expert recently condoned the use of the word in this way. I don’t like it.

I can be quite liberal about grammar rules and I haven’t been shy about stating that. But I don’t see the point of this change. We already have words that serve this purpose, like the overused “really.”

Here’s an idea: why not just accept a metaphor at face value without making us think you mean it literally? We know a metaphor is often hyperbole; don’t devalue the impact of the words with unnecessary adverbs.

For the Love of Language
While I’m on the topic, I’d like to bring up another overused “L” word that makes me cringe when people use it for exaggerated effect: love. I’m all for letting a little more love into our lives, but when it’s used to describe everything it loses its impact, like that starlet (or teenage girl) who tells everyone they know, “I love you, dahling!”

When a person uses this word too often, people doubt its veracity. Browsing reviews on Amazon.com, I read people proclaim their love for everything from baby strollers to self-help books. “Love” used this way is an empty filler word that rarely tells you anything useful about the product. It’s “telling,” not “showing.”

In fact, that’s good advice for life. We should back up the word love with our actions – doing things that make our loved ones happy, rather than just telling them we love them. Words are powerful. As writers, we know that. But actions that support the right words can set incredible events into motion.

By the way, I want to thank my friend and fellow blogger Cindy Hartman of Hartman Inventory for pointing out society’s over-use of the word “love,” permitting me to develop yet another language-related pet peeve. I love her (literally, of course)!

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