• AEsheron@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Correct. Literally, and literally all of its synonyms, really, truly, actually, honestly, etc, have been used as intensifiers for hundreds of years. Both for factually true and hyperbolic statements. The real irony is that a real purist against evolving usage of words should stop and look at the word a little harder, it originally was used in regards to literature. Specifically letters, as in correspondence, IIRC. Using it to mean something that is precisely true is just as much a perversion as any meaning that came after that.