Pet Peeves

[Adelina]

I was going start a thread to post this question to the group (pet peeves, that is), but since there already is one, I'll just reincarnate it, with apologies to anyone whose pet peeve is reincarnated threads.

Thing is, I'm getting fed up with people at work and stuff who misuse the word "literally" to describe figurative scenarios, as in "I'm literally up to my ears in it" when they are clearly standing free of any such It. Now, instead of just saying "literally" when I mean "literally," I have to rearrange my literal observations into such things as "in a literal sense" or some synonym like truly, really, seriously, when literally would have sufficed, as I do not want to be misunderstood as stating something figuratively when I do in fact mean to express it literally!

*GASP FOR AIR*

'kay? 'kay. Thanks for listening.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.