[dllthomas]

My contention is that there isn't really much divergence. All of these are natural uses of the single sense of "true to the words". True to the words [of the Bible], true to the words [of description that follows], and a hyperbolic use of the latter.

Note that I'm not saying that "literally" is marking hyperbole, but that it is itself being used hyperbolicaly.

All of these are "correct" not because they are separate, established meanings of "literally" but because they are perfectly natural things to do with a word. I would think that this is also why, in an analysis that mistakes this for "divergence", that divergence was pretty much immediate.

[thechao]

Huh. I like this interpretation!