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Comment by ArchTypical | Hacker News Reader

You literally need to look up the definition of what literally means.

This seems to be a literal case of "laying down the law" when the phrase usually just refers to some authority figure disciplining a subject.

Idioms are not literal. The implication of my original comment, is now spelled out.

Literally (adv):

1) in a literal sense or manner.

2) (informal) used in an exaggerated way to emphasize a statement or description that is not literally true or possible

I literally just did.

This is a fairly recent and controversial change to the word. It was updated officially in the dictionary after people kept misusing the word. So now it means both literally and the complete opposite of literally.

"literally" was used the way teenagers use them now in old literature too: https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/literally-centuri...

But yeah people using this term still grinds my gears.

People aren't misusing the word. Hyperbole always doesn't mean what it says. The meaning of the statement "my head just exploded" is that my head just exploded. The meaning of the statement "my head just literally exploded" is the same but maybe stronger. The hyperbole applies to the whole phrase and makes the whole thing mean something other than the literal definition of the words.

Funny you should say that! The definition of literally changed in August 2013 to also include figuratively due to popular usage.

https://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary...

I was quite surprised when I randomly found out yesterday.

This trend in language literally makes me irrationally angry.

I wonder if this is how people felt when some guy invented the word "flammable" in 1813.

Get used to it; language is always evolving. Awful used to mean "awe inspiring" and terrific used mean "causing terror" and now they both mean the opposite and nobody questions it.

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