Literally a nightcap

[girlyswot]

Nobody quite guessed the identity of the mystery object. It was, in fact, a nightcap.

Which leads me on to one of the most exciting things that happened while I was in England. I met the brother of this man. He has literally gone from A (in Norway) to B (in Nebraska), on a tandem picking up hitchhikers including Miss Universe, along the way. He's literally lost his marbles and taught an old dog new tricks. And now, he's literally invited someone in for a nightcap. I was happy to help and expect to become famous the world over as nightcap-knitter to the stars.

So join the revolution now! Let's stop people using the word 'literally' to mean 'figuratively' and start taking them at their word.

Comments

[peverell.livejournal.com]

Hee!

A nightcap was something that didn't occur to me! :-)

The SU's bête noire is newsreaders/reporters using the phrase 'launch an enquiry' when they mean initiate an enquiry/investigation. Without fail he says the same thing; 'you launch a boat or a missile'. I suppose it's more evidence of sloppy word usage in a similar vein to 'literally'.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Or even just 'make enquiries'. Or 'enquire'. That strikes me as something that happens a LOT here in the US - people use unnecessarily complicated ways with big words to say straightforward and simple things.

SU?

[peverell.livejournal.com]

The Spousal Unit. :-) He has various nicknames according to mood.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Ah. I was trying to work out something from Significant Other but I could only come up with Significant Undertaker which seemed singularly inappropriate!

[amamama.livejournal.com]

Ahem, here comes the Norwegian... The place is called Å, not A. Pronounced like the wowel sound in bought or thought. Notice the little circle on top of the a? That tells us it's an aa, one of the three letters Norwegian has in addition, compared to the English alphabet. They are æ=ae, ø=oe andå=aa. So he didn't go from the first letter of the alphabet, he went from the last.

This lesson brought to you by the nitpicking Norwegian - figuratively, that is.

However, you can visit Norway and literally go to Hell. It's a place in Trøndelag, in the middle of the country. At the railway station they used to have an old sign (spelling has changed now, don't use x anymore, besides I think it was stolen a few times, too) that read Gods expedition - which is parcels office. Or whatever you call it. Language is fun...

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh. Well, never mind. When he writes the book, people in England won't know. Except me and I won't tell.

I think he is planning to literally go to Hell too. :)