The meaning of a word doesn’t change just because you use it incorrectly.
Comment on What's a word that means a common saying which is arguably untrue?
SuiXi3D@kbin.social 11 months agoLanguage is fun like that. Kinda like how ‘literally’ can, and often does, mean ‘figuratively’, which has the opposite meaning.
voidMainVoid@lemmy.world 11 months ago
GiveOver@feddit.uk 11 months ago
It does if lots of people use it incorrectly
Twinklebreeze@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That is literally how language works. Words only mean what we mean when we say them.
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Language morphology, but you’re close. Except for that last sentence, technically. That’s some bullshit, right there. 🤣
Tranus@programming.dev 11 months ago
It annoys me that people keep saying “figuratively” is what they mean instead of “literally”. “Figuratively” may be the opposite, and technically correct, but the use of the word “literally” in this way is to strengthen a statement. A more appropriate correction would be “actually” or “seriously”, which holds the intended meaning. “Figuratively” is the last thing it should be replaced with.