i have a vague idea (that i can't prove) that people have started using 'objectively' for this purpose. i also think this is hastening objectively towards the same fate as literally. there is objectively nothing that can be done about this

"Unequivocally"

it's widely accepted that the word "literally" can be used to add emphasis

You found the root cause.

The solution is vicious heckling of idiots who misuse it - treat them like a middle-school drop-out - until they fix their behavior. Do the same for people who pluralize mass nouns as well: trainings, supports (not used like struts), emails.

"Literally" used as an intensifier dates back to the 1700s, but the prescriptivist controversy about it is very recent. People can understand that a word can have different meanings and have different uses. Except for prescriptivists, apparently.

All we can do is use the word correctly, and maybe, if you feel like it, correct other's use of it.

We've nearly lost "envy", and hundreds of other words due to people using words incorrectly. But, as we all know, language is as alive as the people who use it, and it changes right along with us.

A more interesting story, to me, is the discovery that we're all talking less and less:

Psychologists discovered that, since 2005, the average person has spoken less each year than the year before, by approximately 338 fewer words per day.

Best that I can do is, "non-figuratively." As in, "The power of the hurricane winds non-figuratively blew me away."

The correct answer is to make incorrect usage of the word "literally" socially unacceptable. Be fucking mean about it.

Actually…. Oh wait that one is almost on the list too by now.

"Verbatim" often works...

That literally makes no sense.

"Like actually literally, for realz"

I Absolutely agree. It's Totally absurd, we Really need a new word.

I propose "dictionarily".

Nope.

“Seriously” THE WORD. It’s not hard. There isn’t a “need” so much as a discipline and normal fucking intelligence.

Sometimes the best way to show something as real is to say it plainly.

"They literally flew to Boston"

"They seriously flew to Boston"

"They actually flew to Boston"

Vs

"They flew to Boston"

Then they'll just make THAT one mean "not really literally", too.

-- Frost

I'm fine with descriptivism on theory, but it sure seems wrong in the cases where the word changes meaning due to people misunderstanding/misusing the word. That's not a a word gaining a new meaning, it's losing meaning.

The other one I need a replacement for is "begs the question" since so many people have misused that one too.

Yes, that's why it bothers me that word "literally" is used for emphasis. I don't care how long it's been used that way, it robs the word of utility. The whole point of the word was to clarify that you mean literally when your words might otherwise be interpreted as figurative. Shit like this is why I'm unsure if people around me understand that I'm not exaggerating about the Untied States becoming a legitimate dictatorship committing holocaust level atrocities. I don't know how to communicate when I mean something literally and be sure people understand that I mean it literally and am not exaggerating

Those words are "frfr ong"

I've been using "genuinely" more and more in place of "literally" when I want to be, well, literal.

We should stop using adverbs

The word is "acshully"

Fr fr

frfr /s

I will repeat literally twice to convey i mean actually literally. "No, it's literally literally green".

it’s widely accepted that the word “literally” can be used to add emphasis.

NO, the word literally used figuratively to "add emphasis" is only used by ignorants that want to use words without knowing the meaning. we need to stop this.