We've already gone through "very", "truly", "really", "actually", and probably many more. I just don't think humans were meant to have an antonym for "figuratively". It's too much power for any single person to wield.

Literally doesn't mean figuratively, but acting like people can't use sarcasm or hyperbole with exactly one word ("literally") is silly.

we do though. it's "literally". just because a word is used in a figurative sense it doesn't lose its literal meaning. and literally in itself is not some magical word that is immune from figurative use. it's just another word.

I'm with you. For me it's decimate to mean " destroy most of" instead of destroy 10%. Deci literally means one tenth. How much do you think a deciliter is?

"Island" only has an 's' as a stylistic choice writers started to use to make it look more Latin. The word "Island" does not have any Latin roots.

Language changes. Trying to fight it just makes you an old man yelling at the cloud.

If "literally" means "figuratively," then we literally have no word for "literally."

It’s worth pointing out that you just used the word for “literally” and we knew which sense of the word you meant through context. Just like the verb “dust” can mean to put a layer of small particles on something but can also mean to remove the small particles from something. Humans are able to sort these things out.

However, one of the best things about language is that if a need actually arises for more clarity about “literalness”, a solution will naturally emerge to address it.

Even the word “literal” started out as a word that pertained specifically to the written word, and scholarly things, and its sense evolved to refer to things not necessarily written down, to the present meaning of “the most straightforward interpretation of what I’m saying”. A need arose and a word filled the need.