• AEsheron@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Correct. Literally, and literally all of its synonyms, really, truly, actually, honestly, etc, have been used as intensifiers for hundreds of years. Both for factually true and hyperbolic statements. The real irony is that a real purist against evolving usage of words should stop and look at the word a little harder, it originally was used in regards to literature. Specifically letters, as in correspondence, IIRC. Using it to mean something that is precisely true is just as much a perversion as any meaning that came after that.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ugh, you’re one of THOSE…

      The colloquial use is only better when it enhances understanding of what you’re trying to say. Mixing up eg and ie does the opposite and every time you mean figuratively but say literally, an angel is waterboarded.

      In conclusion: stop torturing angels.