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Literally? It is rarely needed to make a point
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Published: October 12, 2008
Commentators on usage often disagree over the way certain words should and should not be used. One of these words is "literally."
That's why my ears perked up during a recent edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN. Dobbs was declaiming, as he usually does, this time about the news media's handling of Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president. He said that the news media had "literally pummeled Sarah Palin."
Those who insist on a single meaning for literally might have wondered why Palin didn't call the police. Under the primary, restrictive definition of literally, Dobbs was saying that the news media had physically assaulted her. Sticklers would insist that the word Dobbs needed was figuratively, not literally, if he needed to use any adverb at all.
The Associated Press Stylebook, which the Journal generally follows, would agree. It says, "Literally means in an exact sense. Do not use it figuratively."
But hold on. Dictionaries give two definitions of literally, and those definitions seem contradictory. For instance, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it as "1: in a literal sense or manner: ACTUALLY" and "2: in effect: VIRTUALLY."
As an illustration of the second definition the dictionary quotes the late Norman Cousins as writing, "(They) will literally turn the world upside down to combat cruelty or injustice." It is obvious that Cousins did not mean that the world would be physically turned upside down but that it would undergo a sort of social revolution. I did some research and found that the erudite Cousins, once the editor of Saturday Review, frequently used literally in this sense.
In a usage note Merriam-Webster's says: "Since some people take sense 2 to be the opposite of sense 1, it has been frequently criticized as a misuse. Instead, the use is pure hyperbole intended to gain emphasis, but it often appears in contexts where no additional emphasis is necessary." I would say that this caveat applies to literally as it was used by both Cousins and Dobbs.
Several of the commentaries on literally invoke that or similar caveats. Among them is The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. It says, "Literally is a bad intensifier, almost always overkill."
My advice to writers and speakers is this: You can almost always count on your context to convey whether what you are saying is figurative or literal. For instance, if you say that someone spilled the beans, why say "literally" or "figuratively"? You are not likely to be misunderstood as saying that someone dumped a bowl of pintos on the kitchen floor.
Speaking of things heard on television: An item here last week was about the nonsensicality of a newspaper's saying that there was "about one customer" in a bank when it was robbed.
Shortly after the item appeared, I heard a television news anchorman say that something or other happened "almost exactly 13 years ago." If that doesn't match "about one," it comes close.
From a Winston-Salem reader: "I don't understand such phrases as ‘by and large,' ‘as it were' and several others that I can't recall just now."
I have written about these expressions previously. Here is a short refresher course.
Today the expression "by and large" means on the whole, in general, all things considered, and for the most part. Originally it meant something different.
The expression originated in the language of 17th century sailing. "By" meant sailing into the wind. "Large" meant sailing with the wind. "By and large" meant in any sailing direction. It later came to be used to mean under all circumstances.
"As it were" means the same thing as "in a manner of speaking" or "so to speak." It is a shortening of "as if it were so."
The reader also wrote: "I am sick of the way the word cool is used…. I make a statement to someone, and immediately the response is, ‘Cool.'"
I share the reader's distaste for the slangy use of "cool." It is a tiresome cliche best left to children and teenagers. I don't even want to think about "way cool."
Misanthropy by bumper sticker, on a car on Lewisville-Clemmons Road: "Some days all I want to be is a missing person.
■ Richard Creed is a retired Journal editor. He can be reached at richcreed@triad.rr.com.
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