>>2981484Grammar nerds everywhere have long lamented the widespread misuse of the word "literally."
As anyone who paid attention in grade school knows, "literally" means "in a literal or strict sense, as opposed to a non-literal or exaggerated sense," and is the opposite of "figuratively," which means "in a metaphorical sense." But recently, it's become in vogue to use "literally" for emphasis in precisely the non-literal sense, as in, "We were literally killing ourselves laughing."
"My impression is that many people don't have any idea of what 'literally' means," Boston University psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason told the Boston Globe. "So they say things like 'He was literally insane with jealousy.' If in response, you asked them if this person had been institutionalized, they'd look at you as if you were the crazy one."
