1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

java.lang.Chris; · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
JamesQMurphy:
Anon:
... Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

I thought it was Samuel Johnson.

No, he failed when he left out sausage.

I hope you will not object if I offer you my most enthusiastic contrafribblarities.

TarquinWJ · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

lyates:
cut and paste

So... how do you plan on cutting from a Web site? Are you Alex? :P

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
frits:
Anon:
Data structures are literally chiseled in stone

The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

Somebody literally needs to start an organization to save the word literally from this abusive de facto demotion to a meaningless intensifier.

Yawn I'm glad the word ironic wasn't used ironically wrong in this article, or we would have to hear that tired old diatribe, too.

How ironic, because your literally guaranteed that its going too happen now.

FTFY

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
Anon:
The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
go awayyyy

Sorry, but unless it's in the Oxford English Dictionary it doesn't count. It's "The definitive record of the English language" because it literally says that on their website. Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

Everyone! You're missing the obvious answer to this controversy. It is quite possible and maybe even likely, that Alex was dead serious. Have you seen his place of work? Maybe data structures ARE literally chiseled in stone.

You might not do that. I don't because stone breaks too easily. I pour liquid adamantium into molds to describe my data structures.

Silfax · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:

Sorry, but unless it's in the Oxford English Dictionary it doesn't count. It's "The definitive record of the English language" because it literally says that on their website. Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

That would be the lesser known Oxford Aramaic Dictionary

savar · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Since the name is Jennifer Garner, I'm literally sure it's anoymized and the use of non-concealing spans was deliberate.

Alex sure knows what buttons to push to get us riled up.

elamberton · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

I don't understand why people redact everything but the last 4 number of a SSN. That's the unique part. The first 3 identify the state where it was issued, the next 2 identify the batch, and the last 4 identify you. If you want to anonymize the data, blank out everything but the first 3.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

ih8u:
Anon:
Anon:
The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
go awayyyy

Sorry, but unless it's in the Oxford English Dictionary it doesn't count. It's "The definitive record of the English language" because it literally says that on their website. Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

Everyone! You're missing the obvious answer to this controversy. It is quite possible and maybe even likely, that Alex was dead serious. Have you seen his place of work? Maybe data structures ARE literally chiseled in stone.

You might not do that. I don't because stone breaks too easily. I pour liquid adamantium into molds to describe my data structures.

I used gold-anodized aluminum plaques for mine.

newfweiler · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
JamesQMurphy:
Anon:
... Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

I thought it was Samuel Johnson.

No, he failed when he left out sausage.

Johnson's Dictionary ("A Dictionary of the English Language", 1755) didn't leave out sausage. Johnson defined sausage as "A roll or ball made commonly of pork or veal, and sometimes of beef, minced very small, with salt and spice; sometimes it is stuffed into the guts of fowls, and sometimes only rolled in flower."

But that's Johnson's Dictionary, not the Oxford English Dictionary.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Literally (adv):

In fact. Actually.
Not in fact. Not actually.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

echo PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiBlbmNvZGluZz0iVVRGLTgiPz4NCjxyZWNvcmQ+DQogIDxkYktleT45MDM1NzY4PC9kYktleT4NCiAgPGJvcnJvd2VyMT4NCiAgICA8Zmlyc3Q+SmVubmlmZXI8L2ZpcnN0Pg0KICAgIDxsYXN0Pkdhcm5lcjwvbGFzdD4NCiAgICA8YWRkcmVzcz40ODI5IE9ha3ZpZXcgTGFuZTwvYWRkcmVzcz4NCiAgICA8Y2l0eT5QZXJyeXZpZXc8L2NpdHk+DQogICAgPHN0YXRlPldBPC9zdGF0ZT4NCiAgICA8c3NuPjIwOS0yMy02ODc0PC9zc24+DQogIDwvYm9ycm93ZXIxPg0KPC9yZWNvcmQ+DQoNCg== | base64 -d

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

savar:
Since the name is Jennifer Garner, I'm literally sure it's anoymized and the use of non-concealing spans was deliberate.

Alex sure knows what buttons to push to get us riled up.

Jennifer Garner can literally push my buttons and get me riled up!

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

newfweiler:
Anon:
JamesQMurphy:
Anon:
... Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

I thought it was Samuel Johnson.

No, he failed when he left out sausage.

Johnson's Dictionary ("A Dictionary of the English Language", 1755) didn't leave out sausage. Johnson defined sausage as "A roll or ball made commonly of pork or veal, and sometimes of beef, minced very small, with salt and spice; sometimes it is stuffed into the guts of fowls, and sometimes only rolled in flower."

But that's Johnson's Dictionary, not the Oxford English Dictionary.

whoosh!

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

David S.:
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
That is the single most terrifying thing I have read. You mean our scholars have abandoned the word literally to the fate of useless intensifiers?

Oh no!!! The definitions of our words should be literally chiseled into stone.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
Anon:
The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
go awayyyy

Sorry, but unless it's in the Oxford English Dictionary it doesn't count. It's "The definitive record of the English language" because it literally says that on their website. Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

OED was deprecated by Merriam Webster years ago...

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

One of the inherent challenges that comes with data is that, once its structure has been defined, it can never be changed. Ever. Data structures are literally chiseled in stone, and the only way to use something different is to rewrite your application from scratch and throw the old application (and any server it touched) in the fires of Mount Doom.

So true........

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
newfweiler:
Anon:
JamesQMurphy:
Anon:
... Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

I thought it was Samuel Johnson.

No, he failed when he left out sausage.

Johnson's Dictionary ("A Dictionary of the English Language", 1755) didn't leave out sausage. Johnson defined sausage as "A roll or ball made commonly of pork or veal, and sometimes of beef, minced very small, with salt and spice; sometimes it is stuffed into the guts of fowls, and sometimes only rolled in flower."

But that's Johnson's Dictionary, not the Oxford English Dictionary.

whoosh!

Not everyone knows English TV humo(u)r off by heart. I'd let him off this, although I'll still laugh at him.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

It's clear that the whole article is a parity (minus the XML code, of coarse). Those seduced by XML justify it with similar (though less-hyperbolic) arguments, despite the fact that you have to modify the specification. Alex points out that to do it right requires the same amount of effort as it does to change a data structure. I believe this to be a mute point, however, because it is done right almost never of the time.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
Data structures are literally chiseled in stone

The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

Somebody literally needs to start an organization to save the word literally from this abusive de facto demotion to a meaningless intensifier.

"Figuratively" isn't quite right here. If you're going for a replacement, the correct one is "virtually", because it's not simply a metaphoric use of "literally" you want to replace, but a hyperbolic one. You don't just want to say that it "resembles being chiseled in stone", you really want "exactly like being chiseled in stone, only not really"... because the point is to emphasize how difficult it is to change once set.

In fact, because it is hyperbole, "literally" is just fine... if you're going to exaggerate, you might as well go all the way.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

I've used XML several times to accept & transfer large CSV datasets that would take huge performance hits if they actually fully went through the en/de code process. Using an XML wrapper lets me make certain that I have all the data I need to fully process the data - where it's coming from, what each data point is, etc.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<header>
<module name="extsys1">
<field>
<order>1</order>
<type>Int</type>
<name>Tindex</name>
</field>
...
<![CDATA[1,2,3,4
2,2,3,4
]]>
</xml>

A single library can export any CSV data passed to it as an ordered list of names & either a 2D array or the actual CSV data. Importing is just as simple, dump in the XML & out comes a 2D array of data indexed as dataset X name, a series of database entrys, or a database entry & a file depending on your needs.

XML can be incredibly useful, but it hits very harsh limits once you start dealing with large datasets. Try converting 500MB of CSV data to fully implemented XML and watch everything roll tits up.

@Deprecated · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

toth:
I don't know what you're all talking about. Where I work, we have a stone mason on staff to write our requirements documents.

We use sharks with frikkin' laser beams on their heads to carve our stone tablets here. Sure, you lose a lot of shark trainers during the process, but we feel it's worth it.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

It's clear that the whole article is a parity (minus the XML code, of coarse). Those seduced by XML justify it with similar (though less-hyperbolic) arguments, despite the fact that you have to modify the specification. Alex points out that to do it right requires the same amount of effort as it does to change a data structure.

I suppose the idea of XML is that you don't have to change the code for the data structure, just the xml schema and xml data files? Of course, that is almost as much effort, but doesn't require recompilation. Er, I mean "XML??! Grrr! I hate it!" .

I believe this to be a mute point, however, because it is done right almost never of the time

Moot point? (I've always liked Joey from Friend's alternative of a 'moo point' - "it's like a cow's opinion, it doesn't matter..." :)

DaveK · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

wtf:
Anon:
The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
go awayyyy

So some doofus at Princeton got it wrong, big deal. It's still an inane colloquialism used by exclusively by illiterates.

Such illiterates as Sir Walter Scott and Arthur Conan Doyle, you mean?

[url]http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/literally[url]:
# 1827, Sir Walter Scott, Chronicles of the Canongate
The house was literally electrified; and it was only from witnessing the effects of her genius that he could guess to what a pitch theatrical excellence could be carried.
1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
[…] at a time when Europe was ringing with his name and when his room was literally ankle-deep with congratulatory telegrams […]

It's hardly a new usage, is it? I would have thought that nearly two hundred years would be long enough for you old fogeys to get used to a neologism, but I guess not!

ShatteredArm · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Me:
Anon:
newfweiler:
Anon:
JamesQMurphy:
Anon:
... Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

I thought it was Samuel Johnson.

No, he failed when he left out sausage.

Johnson's Dictionary ("A Dictionary of the English Language", 1755) didn't leave out sausage. Johnson defined sausage as "A roll or ball made commonly of pork or veal, and sometimes of beef, minced very small, with salt and spice; sometimes it is stuffed into the guts of fowls, and sometimes only rolled in flower."

But that's Johnson's Dictionary, not the Oxford English Dictionary.

whoosh!

Not everyone knows English TV humo(u)r off by heart. I'd let him off this, although I'll still laugh at him.

Anybody who hasn't seen Black Adder needs to get on it. I live in the American Southwest and first saw Black Adder when I was 19, so it's not like it's some obscure thing that people only watch across the pond.

I did like Baldrick's dictionary a little more: C - A big blue wobbly thing

Maurits · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

DaveK:
wtf:
Anon:
The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
go awayyyy

So some doofus at Princeton got it wrong, big deal. It's still an inane colloquialism used by exclusively by illiterates.

Such illiterates as Sir Walter Scott and Arthur Conan Doyle, you mean?
[url]http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/literally[url]:
# 1827, Sir Walter Scott, Chronicles of the Canongate
The house was literally electrified; and it was only from witnessing the effects of her genius that he could guess to what a pitch theatrical excellence could be carried.
1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
[…] at a time when Europe was ringing with his name and when his room was literally ankle-deep with congratulatory telegrams […]
It's hardly a new usage, is it? I would have thought that nearly two hundred years would be long enough for you old fogeys to get used to a neologism, but I guess not!

Not familiar with Chronicles of the Canongate, but I see no reason to doubt Watson's assertion that the room was ankle-deep with congratulatory telegrams.

vt_mruhlin · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

After discovering this brilliant solution, Dave wasn't sure what was more brilliant

You spelled brillant wrong.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

DaveK:
Such illiterates as Sir Walter Scott and Arthur Conan Doyle, you mean?
[url]http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/literally[url]:
# 1827, Sir Walter Scott, Chronicles of the Canongate
The house was literally electrified; and it was only from witnessing the effects of her genius that he could guess to what a pitch theatrical excellence could be carried.
1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
[…] at a time when Europe was ringing with his name and when his room was literally ankle-deep with congratulatory telegrams […]
It's hardly a new usage, is it? I would have thought that nearly two hundred years would be long enough for you old fogeys to get used to a neologism, but I guess not!

Nice try but you've left out any and all context. For all we know, the room was literally electrified and he was literally ankle-deep in congratulatory telegrams. I don't see what you've proven here, except your excellent ability to quote out of context.

DaveK · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
@Deprecated:
Seriously now, what's with the spans attempting to hide personal information? Maybe you could try x's? I assume that the barely-obscured data is in fact anonymized.
Signed,

Jamie.

Since the name is Jennifer Garner, I'm literally sure it's anoymized and the use of non-concealing spans was deliberate.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny

DaveK · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

DaveK:
Anon:
@Deprecated:
Seriously now, what's with the spans attempting to hide personal information? Maybe you could try x's? I assume that the barely-obscured data is in fact anonymized.
Signed,

Jamie.

Since the name is Jennifer Garner, I'm literally sure it's anoymized and the use of non-concealing spans was deliberate.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny

HA! EAT IT, AKISMET! I PWN YOU!

(Translation: If you try and write a post with a URL, and akisme(n)t(al) thinks it's spammy, add some text until akismet passes it, then immediately edit the post and cut it all back out again until you've got it back the way you originally wanted to post it. Akismet doesn't get to block the edit, only the initial post....)

frits · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Me:
Not everyone knows English TV humo(u)r off by heart.

That would be because British humor literally isn't funny. ducks

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

DaveK:
DaveK:
Anon:
@Deprecated:
Seriously now, what's with the spans attempting to hide personal information? Maybe you could try x's? I assume that the barely-obscured data is in fact anonymized.
Signed,

Jamie.

Since the name is Jennifer Garner, I'm literally sure it's anoymized and the use of non-concealing spans was deliberate.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny
HA! EAT IT, AKISMET! I PWN YOU!
(Translation: If you try and write a post with a URL, and akisme(n)t(al) thinks it's spammy, add some text until akismet passes it, then immediately edit the post and cut it all back out again until you've got it back the way you originally wanted to post it. Akismet doesn't get to block the edit, only the initial post....)

Or you could try this trick:

Hey Akismet, eat my spam -

[image]

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

frits:
Me:
Not everyone knows English TV humo(u)r off by heart.

That would be because British humor literally isn't funny. ducks

Intelligent humour is an aquired taste when you've grown up on American "comedy".

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

And for the impressionable young folks here whose sense of humour may not be sufficiently fine-tuned yet, and who haven't yet learned the hard way just how scary this is:

Data structures are literally chiseled in stone, and the only way to use something different is to rewrite your application from scratch

Repeat after me:

The data belongs to the enterprise, not to the application. The data belongs to the enterprise, not to the application. The data belongs to the enterprise, not to the application.

Now go forth, spend sufficient time in data analysis and design, and sin no more.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

DaveK:
DaveK:
Anon:
@Deprecated:
Seriously now, what's with the spans attempting to hide personal information? Maybe you could try x's? I assume that the barely-obscured data is in fact anonymized.
Signed,

Jamie.

Since the name is Jennifer Garner, I'm literally sure it's anoymized and the use of non-concealing spans was deliberate.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny
HA! EAT IT, AKISMET! I PWN YOU!
(Translation: If you try and write a post with a URL, and akisme(n)t(al) thinks it's spammy, remove the link, then immediately edit the post and add it back in again. Akismet doesn't get to block the edit, only the initial post....)

FTFY - simpler that adding random garbage, don't you think?

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Am I the only person whose jaw literally dropped upon seeing the monstrosity that is the xslt based base64 decoder?

Seriously, xslt makes COBOL literally look like a terse and cryptic language.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Did you know that language is changing?

Stephen Fry (another Black Adder alumnus) did a great little video about language snobbery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Intelligent humour is an aquired taste when you've grown up on American "comedy"

Really? You've never seen Frasier then? Or Curb Your Enthusiasm? There's lots of good American humour - not all of it is 'Everybody Loves Raymond' (*shudder*).

On the other hand, I was watching Open All Hours which is surprisingly still funny - "This Jamaican ginger cake's not from Jamaica!" "So? We sell Mars bars, don't we?.." :)

SteamBoat · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

JamesQMurphy:
TRWTF is that most of you have never heard of Jennifer Garner. She literally puts Irish Girl to shame.

I'm still going with Irish Girl.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
go awayyyy

And of course the fact that a statement appears on a web site makes it Unquestionable Truth. How dare you blasphemers question the Almighty World Wide Web!

I am a little puzzled, though, at how it is possible that according to the web site of one toothpaste manufacturer, 4 out of 5 dentists recommend their brand, while a competing toothpaste maker says that 9 out of 10 recommend THEIR brand ...

DaveK · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

boog:
DaveK:
DaveK:
Anon:
@Deprecated:
Seriously now, what's with the spans attempting to hide personal information? Maybe you could try x's? I assume that the barely-obscured data is in fact anonymized.
Signed,

Jamie.

Since the name is Jennifer Garner, I'm literally sure it's anoymized and the use of non-concealing spans was deliberate.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny
HA! EAT IT, AKISMET! I PWN YOU!
(Translation: If you try and write a post with a URL, and akisme(n)t(al) thinks it's spammy, remove the link, then immediately edit the post and add it back in again. Akismet doesn't get to block the edit, only the initial post....)

FTFY - simpler that adding random garbage, don't you think?

How un-simple do you think copy-pasting a ton of text from one of your other browser tabs is? Can't see any significant difference in effort between the two methods myself.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

My objection to using the word "literally" to mean "extremely" or "very" is that we already have lots of words that are synonyms for "extremely" and "very". Wouldn't it be nice if we had words that had a specific meaning so that we could say what we wanted to say concisely? Now that so many people use the word "literally" to mean "extremely", when you really want to say that you mean something literally, it becomes hard to do. Like, suppose you wanted to express the idea that your company had acquired a piece of granite, hired a stone mason to inscribe company policies into this granite with a hammer and chisel, and then set this up in the lobby to impress employees and customers that they took these policies seriously. If you said, "Our company policies are now literally carved in stone", most readers would understand "literally" to mean "figuratively". To get the idea across, you would have to write a paragraph like I did above.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

boog:
It's clear that the whole article is a parity (minus the XML code, of coarse). Those seduced by XML justify it with similar (though less-hyperbolic) arguments, despite the fact that you have to modify the specification. Alex points out that to do it right requires the same amount of effort as it does to change a data structure. I believe this to be a mute point, however, because it is done right almost never of the time.

Just to join the spelling nazis, I think you mean that the article is a PARODY and that Alex makes a MOOT point.

A "mute point" would be when someone who cannot speak uses his fingers to indicate a direction.

xtremezone · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Jay:
I am a little puzzled, though, at how it is possible that according to the web site of one toothpaste manufacturer, 4 out of 5 dentists recommend their brand, while a competing toothpaste maker says that 9 out of 10 recommend THEIR brand ...

Every toothbrush commercial since 1984:
Recommended by [80%+ of] dentists.

Maybe they just mean toothbrushes in general? xD

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
Cad Delworth:
they bought the car and literally ran it into the ground.

I guess the out here is that the phrase "ran it into the ground" as well as "chiseled in stone" are metaphors, and as such you might add literally before a metaphor to mean the thing that the metaphor represents is literally true. For example:

they bought the car and literally ran it until it stopped working

Data structures are literally unable to be changed

Of course, I still think it's inane.

Except that metaphors, by definition, are not literal, so that would be an oxymoron.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

xtremezone:
Jay:
I am a little puzzled, though, at how it is possible that according to the web site of one toothpaste manufacturer, 4 out of 5 dentists recommend their brand, while a competing toothpaste maker says that 9 out of 10 recommend THEIR brand ...
Every toothbrush commercial since 1984:
Recommended by [80%+ of] dentists.
Maybe they just mean toothbrushes in general? xD

You laugh, but that's what the study actually was.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Adrian Malacoda:
Anon:
Cad Delworth:
they bought the car and literally ran it into the ground.

I guess the out here is that the phrase "ran it into the ground" as well as "chiseled in stone" are metaphors, and as such you might add literally before a metaphor to mean the thing that the metaphor represents is literally true. For example:

they bought the car and literally ran it until it stopped working

Data structures are literally unable to be changed

Of course, I still think it's inane.

Except that metaphors, by definition, are not literal, so that would be an oxymoron.

I don't disagree, I'm just trying to suggest where the habit might have started.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Anon:
Anon:
The word you're looking for is figuratively. Literally is not an intensifier, it literally means you actually do that. Which I'm pretty sure you don't.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=literally:
S: (adv) literally (in a literal sense) "literally translated"; "he said so literally" S: (adv) literally ((intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration) "our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
go awayyyy

Sorry, but unless it's in the Oxford English Dictionary it doesn't count. It's "The definitive record of the English language" because it literally says that on their website. Also, I'm pretty sure the OED was written by Jesus himself.

Unless I'm mistaken, Mr. Christ was responsible for the Oxford Aramaic Dictionary. FYI.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Jay:
My objection to using the word "literally" to mean "extremely" or "very" is that we already have lots of words that are synonyms for "extremely" and "very". Wouldn't it be nice if we had words that had a specific meaning so that we could say what we wanted to say concisely? Now that so many people use the word "literally" to mean "extremely", when you really want to say that you mean something literally, it becomes hard to do. Like, suppose you wanted to express the idea that your company had acquired a piece of granite, hired a stone mason to inscribe company policies into this granite with a hammer and chisel, and then set this up in the lobby to impress employees and customers that they took these policies seriously. If you said, "Our company policies are now literally carved in stone", most readers would understand "literally" to mean "figuratively". To get the idea across, you would have to write a paragraph like I did above.

Yes, exactly. This language change makes it impossible to concisely say that something is literally true.

Now, if there were other words that could be used to get that across, it wouldn't be such a big deal. For instance, if you could say "Our company policies are now actually carved in stone" or "our company policies really are carved in stone now".

But with the current situation, you literally have to write a whole paragraph.

Aaron · 2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Jay:
My objection to using the word "literally" to mean "extremely" or "very" is that we already have lots of words that are synonyms for "extremely" and "very". Wouldn't it be nice if we had words that had a specific meaning so that we could say what we wanted to say concisely? Now that so many people use the word "literally" to mean "extremely", when you really want to say that you mean something literally, it becomes hard to do. Like, suppose you wanted to express the idea that your company had acquired a piece of granite, hired a stone mason to inscribe company policies into this granite with a hammer and chisel, and then set this up in the lobby to impress employees and customers that they took these policies seriously. If you said, "Our company policies are now literally carved in stone", most readers would understand "literally" to mean "figuratively". To get the idea across, you would have to write a paragraph like I did above.

First of all, I have not seen anybody, anywhere, ever, using the word literally to mean extremely or very. As others have stated, it is sometimes used in place of figuratively, metaphorically or virtually.

And yes, this usage is wrong according to the formal definition. However, what you all apparently fail to understand is the relationship between definition and context. The F-Bomb, stated on its own as an exclamation, has no fewer than three distinct meanings, none of which are consistent with what most people would accept (sans context) as the definition of the word itself, i.e. an act of copulation.

Similarly, the usage of literally to mean its exact opposite is a literary device - specifically sarcasm or hyperbole, most commonly used in satire or other humour. Idiomatic definitions of words or phrases are not a new or particularly interesting phenomenon; when somebody says "I am up to my neck in sh*t", most people would immediately understand that they are not literally referring to being physically immersed in actual poop. It is simply a metaphor for being busy or frustrated.

And as with most idioms, people of low literacy will apply them incorrectly. They will use the term literally to mean not literally when expressing an idea that is not the least bit sarcastic or humorous, and sound like an idiot in the process. But that is not what Alex has done here. It's quite clear that the word was being used to convey hyperbole, which is where the "intensifier" definition comes in. This usage is completely acceptable in informal writing.

How about you all actually learn a little bit about writing before criticizing the way other people do it? And try to use paragraph breaks once in a while, kplzwalloftxtthx.

2010-11-01 Reply Admin

Jay:
I am a little puzzled, though, at how it is possible that according to the web site of one toothpaste manufacturer, 4 out of 5 dentists recommend their brand, while a competing toothpaste maker says that 9 out of 10 recommend THEIR brand ...

Oh, that's easy! Just hang out in the supermarket and after someones buys their toothpaste, ask what brand they prefer!

After all, there's lies, damn lies, and then statistics.

Extensible XML

1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

Leave a comment on “Extensible XML”