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by jorisw 5 days ago
I think the word 'literally' has gone the way of the emdash
3 comments

The em-dash has a fairly specific use. It's just that some people have decided that it indicates AI and can't resist trumpeting that supposed insight at every opportunity.
Well, they have some horror stories about them, so it's plausible, I just didn't find any evidence they specifically urinated on the audience.
literally has had two meanings for decades, maybe centuries

1) Literally Literally

2) Figuratively

It's semantic bleaching

Not sure why you're downvoted. People have literally been using literally both ways for at at least 25 years by my own observational record.

You know, "I could literally eat a horse." in which it is clearly understood that the speaker is not claiming that they could physically fit a horse inside their stomache.

Literally literally didn't mean literally even when it meant literally and not figuratively

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/very-actually-and-ot...

Except in this case e.g. Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon actually did literally piss on the audience, so using the word literally to mean "not literally" is confusing because it's not obviously some exaggeration (and considering the timelines, the original comment may have been referring to a literal event but confusing who did it).