Literally

Alright guys, I am coming out of retirement for this post because this annoys me so very much that I cannot stay quiet anymore.

Literally.

Why is it that when people actually mean "truly" or some synonym of that, they say "literally." I believe that about 89% of the time that people say "literally" they are actaully talking quite figuratively. I just heard someone in my office say "there was smoke coming out of my ears, literally."

Really? Was there really smoke coming out of your ears? Because if there was then I think you should have probably seen a doctor. The much more likely scenario is that there was smoke coming out of your ears figuratively.

Let's go back to 2nd grade for a moment:
The word "litereally" is a describing word, that means it is a word you use to DESCRIBE! It is not an emphasizing word like "very," and therefore it should not be used in that manner.

And yes, I understand that this entry might be extremely hypocritical in the sense that I probably break grammatical rules constantly. However, I am awesome, so do as I say and not as I do and I say only use the word "literally" if you know how to use it correctly.

Thank you very much and have a nice day.