Mea Culpa: some surprisingly literal large numbers

Questions of language and style in last week’s Independent, by John Rentoul

Gold jewellery found in Spain – literally

(University of Seville)

In an enthusiastic article about a hoard of jewellery found in Spain, we allowed ourselves to be carried away, saying that “literally hundreds of spectacularly beautiful gold, ivory, rock-crystal, amber, greenstone, sea-shell, ostrich eggshell, flint and copper artefacts have been unearthed”. In conversation, “literally” has been used as an intensifier for emphasis for some time, but it is unusual to see it in print in a factual article.

We were so excited by the find, which suggested that the site was an international trade hub, that we did it again in the next paragraph, saying that it had attracted “merchandise from literally thousands of miles away”.

We also did it in another article about microalgae, saying that “there are literally hundreds of thousands of species”.