The 300-Year History of Using ‘Literally’ Figuratively

The 300-Year History of Using ‘Literally’ Figuratively : Kory Stamper in The Science of Us talking about hyperbolic “literally” . Excerpt:  The emphatic “literally” is not a millennial invention; it goes back to the 1700s at least, though Smith gets it right that it’s English. John Dryden, a man who is best known as the founder of literary criticism and the prohibition against the terminal preposi