Chrome plug-in replaces occurrences of the word 'literally' with 'figuratively'

github.com

22 points·luu··7 comments

"A browser plugin that replaces occurrences of the word 'literally' with 'figuratively'. That's figuratively all it does."

But a lot of times "literally" literally means "literally".

Why would you get all arrogant and superior over other people's use of language, then implement such an obviously broken concept? Literally the dumbest thing I've seen all day.

Lots of innovation in this area: https://github.com/panicsteve/cloud-to-butt

About a year ago I wrote an extension for finding & replacing whatever spelling/grammar people wanted to change on the WWW: http://www.ityms.com/. It's a poor man's version of the Github PR for typos.

Why? Modern usage of the word is appropriate. It's widely recognized as a contranym: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym

Language evolves. Get over it.

I don't think it's accurate to refer to the way "literal" is used today as purely "modern" or a recent "evolution". Most sources say the word has been used this way since at least the 1700s.

I can't seem to find the link that said this, but I believe the 1700's-1800's version of our modern use of the word "literally" was "veritably". They used it in the same ways we do when we use it the incorrect (non-literal) form.

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