Literally bursting with frustration

Well I'm not, obviously. Were I to be literally bursting, I'd hardly be writing this. I'd be spraying little wet fragments of myself all over the office.

But I am frustrated. By this misuse of the word 'literally'. (It's a writer thing. Go with it.)

In the December issue of Creative Review, for example, there's a spread about Farrow Design's elegant and charming identity for new bakery brand Peyton and Byrne. Perhaps you saw it.

Mark Farrow is quoted in the text talking about the production methods they used for the cake boxes, which were sourced from some sort of artisan set-up in deepest France.

"We had no idea what we were going to get back," Farrow says. "These things are literally potato printed..."

Really? Literally? If so, those French printers really know how to handle their spuds.* You hear this all the time - "I was literally beside myself..."; "He's literally dead on his feet..."; "I was eating for England - literally!" No you weren't. There's no need for that word. It's wrong. Stop it.

Nice boxes though.


* If they really were potato printed, of course, I humbly apologise.