If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?
The word I would give up is “literally.” It’s definition was “a word or phrase meaning just what it says and is not a simile or a metaphor.” So, if I said, “That boxer had hands of stone,” I was probably using a metaphor, i.e., his hands were actually human skin and bones, but he hit so hard it was as if he had stones for hands.
On the other hand, if the boxer had his hands amputated and replaced with stones, I would have meant it literally when I said, “He had hands of stone.”
However, in the last couple of decades literally has been used as a form of emphasis. For example, after missing the beginning of the Super Bowl one year, the speaker said, “It was literally the worst day of my life.”
However, it wasn’t the worst day of his life; the day his 6-year-old son was killed in an auto accident was. The speaker knew that but just wanted to emphasize that he was extremely upset about missing part of the game. He did not literally mean it was the worst day of his life (yet, that was the word he used for emphasis).
Given this change in the use of the word, if I use it, the listener does not know if I am using it just for emphasis or I mean it to be understood as being literal and not as a simile or metaphor.
It seems strange even to me that I am disturbed (a little) that a word I used for years to explain something now cannot be used without a real risk of being misunderstood.
So, the word I would be willing to eliminate from my vocabulary is “literally.”
Peter M. Hartmann, MD
Family Medicine & Psychiatry
