Et Tu, Oxford English Dictionary?

Last April, I had the opportunity to visit with a few of my favorite former students. I'm afraid a serial killer was born that day, friends, because I noticed a language trend that made me feel positively murderous: the unabashed misuse of the word literally. These young women had literally crapped their pants, literally guzzled an entire bottle of vodka in one sitting, and literally died laughing among other literal events. When I returned to work the following Monday, I tuned in to the casual conversations of the students and found that the misuse was rampant! My only solace was that I could correct the linguistic lawbreakers with my standard "Is that how literally is defined in the dictionary? Go look it up!" Imagine my distress when I learned that my beloved Oxford English Dictionary had altered the definition to include the colloquial usage.

It is a word that has been misused by so many that its definition has been changed – literally.

The Oxford English Dictionary has revealed that it has included the erroneous use of the word ‘literally’ after the usage became popular.

The dictionary states the definition as ‘in a literal way or sense’ but adds that, informally, it can be ‘used for emphasis rather than being actually true’ such as ‘we were literally killing ourselves laughing’.

Way to stick to your principles, OED!  I thought I could rely on the British to keep English classy.  But there is a thread of silver lining my cloud:

At least, when explaining how people incorrectly use it, the dictionary still seems to slightly scold the person delivering the wrong word.

It says: 'This use can lead to unintentional humorous effects (we were literally killing ourselves laughing) and is not acceptable in formal contexts, though it is widespread.'

Not everyone has been impressed with the change in use over the word.

I am fairly certain that this is one battle in which I will not back down.  I only figuratively want to kill people who flagrantly misuse the word, but it still raises my hackles.  If I ever snap, though, offenders be warned: I have already decided on my "signature."

 All images from Google.

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2392586/Oxford-English-Dictionary-admits-used-wrong-sense-word-literally.html#ixzz2dZzwFdDn