I keep trying to tell folks that “literally” is just the latest in a long line of words that initially meant “in actual fact, no hyperbole” but soon became hyperbolic intensifiers but it’s really, truly, very hard for them to accept ;-)
...
because I'm a #linguistics word nerd, after I wrote that quip, I went and checked the history of all four of those really-not-really intensifiers:
very: Meaning "greatly, extremely" is first recorded mid-15c
really: The general sense is from early 15c. Purely emphatic use dates from c. 1600
truly: from Old English treowlice "faithful, trustworthy", The sense of "consistent with fact" is recorded from c. 1200; it's hard to tell when it became a generic intensifier but "Yours truly" is from 1833 so it's probably around or before then
literally: Since late 17c. it has been used in metaphors, hyperbole, etc
So not only are snoots wrong that the unforgiveable degradation of "literally" is recent, they are also wrong that it is unprecedented. It seems to be a natural effect in #English, and maybe in every other human language -- let's call it the Hyperbolic Treadmill, like the Euphemism Treadmill ; other suggestions welcome in comments
