Is exam week literally the worst week of your life? Or, rather, is exam week the worst week of your life in a literal fashion? Yet again, in a trend spanning centuries, lexicologists and ink slingers have taken it upon themselves to rid younger generations of this “butchering of the English language.” It seems that every generation finds demented enjoyment in concluding that the next is out to destroy all that is good and sacred. According to Ben Zimmer of a vocabulary blog, “One reason that literally gets singled out for special criticism is that we all learn in school the difference between literal and figurative meaning. So it grates on the ear when a figurative turn of speech is given the ‘literal’ treatment.”

  While peevers are an inevitable part of the grammatical community, over the years of my disgustingly accurate grammatical use, I have found myself peeving over peevers. Maybe it’s just my keen ability to use literally in, well, literally the most dramatic ways possible. Every other day seems to literally be the most stressful day of my life (until tomorrow, of course). Literally is not just a word, but a way to portray the woes of everyday life. It is a form of acknowledgement. Some may even say it’s their favorite word, used in place of many adjectives and adverbs. It adds the right about of theatrical jadedness to any string of words, and for that, it will always be my favorite word.

  Literally is a mere form of evolution, not a form of modern illiteracy. The English language will evolve as humans communicate, as we no longer grunt as barbarians. Our sick, pretentious fate is that as long as English changes, people will get pissed. To put it simply: get over yourselves.

Other words that have been “butchered” over the years:

Awful: Traditionally, awful means “to be full-of-awe,” so remember that the next time your algebra test was ‘the most awful of your high school career.’

Could care less: If you have exhausted all care in regards to your senior year grades, you could not care less. The blindly motivated have the ability to care less, but do not necessarily exhaust all care. Still, sometimes most of us could not care less (me included, yes).

Decimate: meaning ‘to destroy one of every ten.’ While you may have ‘decimated’ that calculus exam, most of us got above a 10 percent.

Momentarily: Momentarily, when broken down, means ‘for a moment.’  Will you be at the officer meeting momentarily, or will you be staying the entire time?