this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Interesting! Today I learned, then. Thanks.
Now, and this I'm going to say in a sort-of tongue-in-cheek manner, what's your opinion on the recent change of the meaning of "literally"? Because that one is definitely less (ha!) than 200 years old.
According to this list it was used figuratively by Jane Austen, who I believe died more than 200 years ago. That page also claims the earliest known use is 1769, so it's probably less than 300 years in writing? It's moot either way, if you're going for an etymological argument you could go further and say literally should mean anything to do with letters or writing, from the original Latin literalis/litteralis "of or belonging to letters or writing".
I wasn't going for an ethymological argument. Plenty of examples of words whose meaning veered away from its ethymology.
But the recent popularization of literally as a synonym of figuratively, well, it literally rustles my jimmies.