actually literally is virtually a contronym
“Literally” is its own antonym! How can this be? | Ask MetaFilter
I hate this. We talk about improper usage a lot, especially how it is kind of exemplified by this usage pattern with ‘literally’.
Here’s some other good links I dug out of a third of the comments on the Ask.Mefi:
- the definition in question
- various usage discussions from alt.usage.english
- example contranyms
- or is it “auto-antonym (contronym)”?
My mouth hurts.
