telegraph.co.uk

Inappropriate use of the word "literally" has become so commonplace it is now "epidemic", a leading author said yesterday.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, incorrectly used the word to describe high earners when he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph: "You see people literally in a different galaxy who are paying extraordinarily low rates of tax."

Writer and comedian Paul Parry was scathing about the Deputy Prime Minister's slip. He told Today: "This is probably the worst thing Nick Clegg has ever done. He's just completely misusing the word."

He added: "It's not about pedantry, it's about communication. The key thing is the word 'literally' is a safe word.

"We've got a wonderful, floral language. You can say that you've got itchy feet, that you'd kill for a cup of coffee, that you'd bring the house down, that you've got a frog in your throat, but ultimately you need to be able to show that words have a literal meaning as well.

"There is no other word that means 'literally' and if the word 'literally''s meaning is eroded by all this misuse then there is nothing to replace it and we'll get a lot more confusion."

examples;

- BBC Radio 1 DJ Fearne Cotton saying an album was "literally flying off the shelves"

- Jamie Oliver saying a recipe "literally takes no time at all".

- Wayne Rooney was often described as "literally on fire" or "literally playing out of his skin" by sports commentators

- BBC newsreader had said in another sporting context: "You are up against Norwegians who are literally born on skis."

- Football pundit and former player Alan Shearer apparently embarking on a Lilliputian flight of fancy when he said: "After the first goal went in you could literally see the Derby players shrinking.

- Singer Rachel Stevens said of appearing on Strictly Come Dancing: "My legs literally turned to jelly."

I'd turn Rachel Stevens' legs to jelly. Giggedy goo!

What, literally?

Hahaha - funny mental image!

Just because people misuse a word doesn't mean that it no longer has a meaning or can't still be used in context.

Pretty sure the word 'actually' could be a substitute for literally.

It's just used as a way of emphasising something, I don't think it can be used the way it used to be used now.

It can be used the way it is supposed to be exactly the same as before it is just that the dumb fucks that use it in the wrong context probably still won't know what you're talking about!

Of course it can still be used properly. Its just a fad. Its not like people are going to stop referring to ill folk as 'sick' for fear they might be misunderstood to mean awesome/ cool. Even the word cool still gets used properly as well as in its slang meaning.

Well, it's not really dumb fucks, like you said it's just a phase. Maybe that should say that currently if you used it people would think you were exaggerating something rather than meaning it. Once 'the fad' passes it will be different.

Something will always have a literal translation as well and only that word will make sense when describing it....

"Mano-o-Mano is literally translated as hand-to-hand" there is no other word that makes sense in that sentence to describe its incorrect meaning but correct translation.

Case closed!

Haha

The biggest epidemic is the overuse of the word 'epidemic'.

I thought it was the constant use of the word 'wonga'

hench, literally epic.





sigh

This epidemic has literally negatively impacted me.

Obviously I thinkt its obvious that "obviously" is the most overused word