Pedants' corner

I've literally been to hell and back today*.

Except I clearly haven't because even if hell exists, as far as I know nobody has ever survived the burny, burny fires and returned to tell us all about it.

But according to Radio 4 (where else?) the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary have changed the definition of "literally" - so it can now be used to mean "metaphorically."

So this is OK from Nick Clegg: "It makes people so incredibly angry when you are paying your taxes and then you see people literally in a different galaxy who are paying extraordinarily low rates of tax." I didn't know tax avoidance schemes had spread that far.

And from Ulrika Jonsson, when talking about the Swedish system of child custody after divorce, "they literally will split the child in half to live one week with the mother ..." The Swedes have obviously found the wisdom of Solomon.

Better stop now before I literally explode.


*and split an infinitive along the way.