And maybe borrow a dictionary.

Why do people use “literally” to underline a metaphor? It completely negates the meaning of the word. For instance: “I literally killed myself laughing.” You did? Then are you some sort of phantom informing me of this? But, oh, did you just want to emphasize how much you were laughing? Ah, now I see.

There is a part of me that wants to respond to this misuse by just asking the question: “You’re kidding, that literally happened?” But that part of me is more sarcastic than I want to be.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who has noticed this inconsistency. There seem to be many of us who are picky enough to have pointed it out.

Language is not static, that’s one of the beautiful things about it. But it seems silly to use an anti-metaphor word to highlight the very metaphor itself. I mean, it is literally hacking to pieces our ability to communicate well.