this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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I was playing a video game with a buddy recently. I was in the middle of a flank and he said he was out of ammo. I said "literally 0 bullets?" And he said "yep literally 0". I aborted my flank to run back and give him some ammo but got killed as I ran back. Just then, he starts shooting.
I don't think context makes the word "literally" clear. We ruined the word and now we need a new one to establish we're not exaggerating.
Thank you for the example. Indeed, the context did not make that clear.
That makes me wonder what he thought he was saying. I infer something like "very few". Or he genuinely though he had no bullets left and was wrong. I'd say that second case seems highly unlikely, but it wouldn't totally shock me.
I wonder whether the word is the issue or the speaker's intent: if the speaker insists in exaggerating, then no word they use is going to convey that they aren't exaggerating. I wouldn't think them likely to use any word to convey that they aren't exaggerating, because they are. I think of it like a person bent on sarcasm: you simply need to detect it somehow, then filter every word accordingly.
That wouldn't make the word "literally" literally ruined, but might instead merely indicate that we can't rely on it as a safeword against exaggeration. 🤷