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To view a copy of the Lincoln letter cited by Carl, see: http://www.footnote.com/viewer.php?image=13198559&query=A.%20Lincoln%20letter
Place your mouse of the letter to open a translation window, for easier reading.
Richard Henderson, Archivist
Still Picture Processing Team Special Media Archives Services Division National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Rd, MS NWCS-SPPT, Rm 5350 College Park, MD 20740-6001 (301) 837-1802 >>> cld@xxxxxxxx 6/8/2007 4:35:19 PM >>> From: "Patricia M. Godfrey"
>> It occurs, in a variant form, in David Pogue's column: >> >> "On trips, I literally used to pack two laptops." > > But no, it may be trite there, but he did, literally, pack two > laptops. If he had written, say, "I used to literally break my back > lugging two laptops," THAT would be the usage we all condemn. True, he didn't commit the mortal sin. As I see it, Pogue (who is, after all, a very smart guy) isn't using "literally" in opposition to "figuratively" at all. For one thing, there's no possibility, in this context, of confusion with any figurative usage -- how would one figuratively pack two laptops? Rather, I think, he's using it as an intensifier, as in "this is no joke" or "God's honest truth". Like it or not, "literally" has acquired this secondary meaning, especially in informal speech. Life's too short to get into a pedantic tizzy over it, IMO. Water off the canard's back. BTW, note A. Lincoln's usage (and misspelling) of the word in question in a letter of his, the original of which has just been found in the National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2007/nr07-108.html -- Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxx |