this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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A player on Big Brother said that both her parents ran track and so she was "literally born on the track". Unless your mother went into labour on the track and gave birth right there, you were not literally born on the track!

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[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Disagree. When a word means what it actually means, but also means the ~~opposite~~ inverse¹, then it doesn't mean anything. The whole point of using "literally" is to establish context, to distinguish an actual literal situation when the language used would otherwise be interpreted as figurative.

I'm generally not a prescriptivist, but I'll figuratively die on this hill. "Literally can mean figuratively" literally robs "literally" of its meaning.

¹ Edit: I should've been more precise, it was bugging me.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm generally not a prescriptivist, but I'll figuratively die on this hill.

You wouldn't literally die on the hill? Doesn't sound like you're very committed. 😌

If it was literally a hill I would, but semantic integrity isn't actually a geological protuberance.