Here's a small dialog about the arguments and counter-arguments for using literally to refer to things that didn't actually happen:
Anti-Literally: That's not the correct usage of the word. It's not what the word means!
Pro-Literally: Ok, then, can you give me an example of it being used correctly?
AL: Ok, sure, how about: "When I heard the news, I literally jumped up and down", if you actually jumped up and down when you heard the news
PL: But that's not what the word means, it means 'by the letter'. If we're going by the etymology, the only acceptable usage would be in something like "The text was translated literally". Clearly the definition has already expanded from it's original meaning, so why is this meaning so wrong?
AL: But literally have been used that way forever, but using it in this way is new, and only young and stupid people do it.
PL: I refer you to the Oxford English Dictionary, which notes that the word has been used that way since 1796. It's hardly new.
AL: Yeah, but only by stupid people who can't communicate well.
PL: Well, then, lets consult one Mr. Charles Dickens. He wrote the following passage in Nicholas Nickelby:
He was scarce fifty, perhaps, but so emaciated as to appear much older. His features presented the remains of a handsome countenance, but one in which the embers of strong and impetuous passions were easier to be traced than any expression which would have rendered a far plainer face much more prepossessing. His looks were very haggard, and his limbs and body literally worn to the bone, but there was something of the old fire in the large sunken eye notwithstanding...
We can assume here that the man in question was not a walking skeleton, and therefore his limbs would not actually have been worn to the bone.
AL: Screw Dickens, he was a terrible writer and a darn Englishman to boot. No great American writers would write like that.
PL: Ok then, how about this:
And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth.
That's Mark Twain (and "Tom" is "Tom Sawyer"). Are you really suggesting that Charles Dickens and Mark Twain are "stupid people" who have problems communicating? Are you really suggesting that you have a better grasp of the English language than Charles Motherfuckin' Dickens?
AL: I don't care what you say! It's a rule, a rule of language, that you can't use literally that way!
PL: Why is it a rule? Who told you it was a rule? Was it an esteemed linguist, backed up by Ph.D.s? I guarantee you it wasn't, because actual linguists think this whole debate is stupid. It is clearly, and obviously, ok to use "literally" this way. Perhaps it was some school marm who traumatized you with her red pen when you innocently used English the way it's supposed to be used. But what the hell does she know, what makes her an expert? Someone told her this rule as well at some point, and just like you, she didn't question it.
The truth is, there is no "Council of English" which hands down pronouncements about what is right and what is wrong. There are rules of English, of course there are, but they're not written down in some book somewhere, inviolable for all time. The rules of English change as the change them, and new words come in to being and we adapt to them. This word has had this meaning since the late 18th century, and it was popularly used all through the 19th century. It is a standard part of English.
It is interesting, in fact, to note that this prohibition against using this word this way doesn't appear until the 20th century. Someone just made it up that this was wrong, out of thin air.
AL: Ok, so maybe you're right. Maybe there isn't any logic to this rule: the original meaning of literally have been long lost, and we've been using this word this way for hundreds of years. But don't you agree that it sounds very silly?
PL: No, not necessarily, I think it sounds perfectly natural. But in any case, what does that matter? Lots of things sound silly, that doesn't mean that they're grammatically or semantically wrong. If you don't want to sound silly, stop writing in a silly sounding way, but don't blame "literally" for it.
AL: Fine. I give up. You win.
PL: Damn straight.
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