Literally

It has now become standard practice to use the word “literally” to mean its opposite, “figuratively.” Example: “I literally died when I saw that awful U2 album show up in my iTunes.” No, you did not literally die, because then you wouldn’t be writing that sentence.

I do recognize that language evolves, but in this case we have lost a useful word, without a decent replacement. “Actually” doesn’t quite have the same feel to it.

Going forward, we will need to be more proactive about nipping this kind of low hanging fruit in the bud, so that this can be a win-win situation at the end of the day. Just saying.