I “Literally” wrote this post.

The word literally is said by many people of different cultures or backgrounds, Almost everyone probably has said the word literally. In my personal experience I hear females saying the word literally very often. “He literally makes me so mad” I’m literally going to cry” The word seems to be losing its meaning as time persists.

According to google dictionary. The word Literally is an adverb, and literally means “in a literal manner or sense; exactly. If used in a sentence it would be “the driver took it literally when asked to go straight across the traffic circle” On the other hand when used in an informal sense it means used for emphasis or to express strong, feeling while not being literally true. For example “I was literally blown away by the response I got”.The person was not actually blown away she was just giving emphasis to her feelings that it shocked her. The word literally can be used to literally contradict the opposite of itself. To me that’s impressive.

I listened to females mostly say the word literally, and almost all of the time they use it informally. I’ve noticed that men don’t really say the word unless they actually mean what they are saying making it the proper sense. I myself use the word improperly. My question that I am interested in knowing is how and when did this particular word start to lose its actual meaning? What caused the complete opposite of the word to occur? When did society notice this difference? What was society’s reaction to the words meaning being flipped into something different?

I know when Literally was first used according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It was first used properly in 1769. But the information that I’m particularly looking for isn’t very informative on any online platform. It seems to be just many observations and thoughts on how we humans have broken the English language. So my question for all of you wonderful bloggers is to put in your 2 cents here in the comments and let me know how you feel about the word, and when you noticed the meaning becoming something other then the formal sense. I’d love to know what you think:)