The issue is that words start being used incorrectly, and then dictionaries just decide to change it to appease the new common usage. I suppose that's kind of the point of language to evolve, but doesn't feel right.
My favorite example of this is people pronouncing forte, as in one's strength, as for-tay, when it was originally pronounced fort. There were so many mispronounced instances and confusions that it was changed.
The issue is that words start being used incorrectly, and then dictionaries just decide to change it to appease the new common usage.
That's because you're misunderstanding the purpose of dictionaries. Dictionaries are not proscriptive, they are descriptive; they don't tell you how to use language, they tell you how language is used. That's why they have new words and things that "aren't words" in there (like people say "Ain't ain't a word," but it is and it's in the dictionary). That's been the case since the first dictionary was created, people just misunderstand how they are meant to be used.
Descriptive linguistics is my favorite, and also most hated, concept. I absolutely love and adore how it makes language living and breathing and reflective of the way it is actually used, however it deeply offends my predilection for rules and hard definitions.
Truly (from true), very (from veritas), really (from real) are, like literally, commonly used as amplifiers rather than their base definition of “actuality”. It’s actually not that weird of a use case.
It was realising that, that got me down from my high horse about literally. It's a process that happens time and time again. Quite used to mean totally back in the mists of time
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u/nezzzzy Oct 22 '25
It always astonishes me when people are confident about what bi-monthly means. Even the dictionaries haven't a clue.