Double-barreled "literal"

[Jonathan Lighter]

My fave is "ironically," in the well-established media sense of "interestingly."  There seems to be no corresponding usage of "ironic," but I'm sure that a careful Googling would prove me wrong.

JL

"Peter A. McGraw" <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Peter A. McGraw"

Subject: Double-barreled "literal"
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I just heard my favorite use yet of "literal" to mean its virtual opposite.
When I turned on NPR this morning--about 5 to 7:00--an interviewee was
saying, "It would be a literal cyber-Pearl Harbor." I didn't hear enough
to get the larger context.

Just thought I'd share.

Peter Mc.

*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw Linfield College McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************

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