RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We're going to take a moment now to talk about a word - yep, one word. Maybe you use it all the time or maybe you feel people use the word and it drives you up the wall. I'm talking about the word literally.
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MARTIN: Let's get one thing out of the way quickly. According to Webster's, the NPR dictionary of record, the original definition of literally is - OK. Here it is. Literally, adverb: In a literal sense or manner. Actually. So, think of it as the opposite of figuratively. But maybe you've turned on a TV in last few decades, watched a show like "Seinfeld" or "Parks and Recreation" and that's not quite the usage you hear.
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MARTIN: So, it's a little bit off-definition. Like a lot of people, Vice President Joe Biden loves using literally this way. Here he is at the Democratic National Convention last fall.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: In the first days - literally the first day...literally stood...literally...but literally making...we're literally...not figuratively, as literally in your case...and it literally amazes me they don't understand that.
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MARTIN: The word is polarizing. So, we did a completely unscientific survey at our office.
STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: I despise the world literally. I despise the way it is used.
MARTIN: I didn't even have to bait you on this. You just went.
INSKEEP: No, no, no. it was literally an outrage.
MARTIN: Can you use the word in sentence?
LINDA WERTHEIMER, BYLINE: The government of Venezuela has said they are literally not going to lose Hugo Chavez. They're going to embalm him. And he'll be sitting in a glass box somewhere for the people to go look at.
MARTIN: So, I think that's correct.
WERTHEIMER: I should hope after 40 years of broadcasting.
MARTIN: You never use that word that way.
AUDIE CORNISH, BYLINE: I try not to do it on air.
MARTIN: You're aware of it. You're conscious of it.
CORNISH: Yes, yes, yes, because it's a thing.
MARTIN: Even - see - you saying it's a thing is a thing.
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MARTIN: That's Steve, Linda and Audie. As for me, well I know it's wrong but I think it's just satisfying to say it that way, even if other people don't like it.
DAVID HAGLUND: That's what you sometimes what you hear from people. They say you're using it wrong.
MARTIN: David Haglund is an editor at Slate magazine.
HAGLUND: And it's true that people are using it in a way that is different from its original meaning. But we do that with all kinds of words. I mean, the most relevant comparison is the word really. People say, oh, I'm really starving, They're not really.
MARTIN: And some dictionaries have even adopted the common usage of literally as a second definition. And that bugs some people.
HAGLUND: These things change and we don't have that much control over them. You hear people using language in a way that you don't like and I think some part of you knows that there's not really anything you can do about that. And that's frustrating. And so people start shouting about it.
MARTIN: So, love it or hate it, can we just call a literally truce?
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MARTIN: This is literally NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.