Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
hateful, literally hateful
English answer:
hateful in the true/full sense of the word
Added to glossary by
literary
Jun 12, 2007 16:33
17 yrs ago
7 viewers *
English term
hateful, literally hateful
English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Two sisters are having a verbal fight. One of them is thinking: "My hateful, literally hateful sister."
Responses
+11
9 mins
Selected
hateful in the true/full sense of the word
In other words, full of hate
"Eliciting or deserving hatred.
Feeling or showing hatred; malevolent" - answers.com
"Eliciting or deserving hatred.
Feeling or showing hatred; malevolent" - answers.com
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Patricia Rosas
1 min
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Thanks Patricia!
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agree |
Cagdas Karatas
3 mins
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Thank you Cagdas (sorry: wrong accents on my keyboard)
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agree |
Refugio
: full of hate
17 mins
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Thanks Ruth
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agree |
Kim Metzger
48 mins
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Thanks Kim
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agree |
conejo
1 hr
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Thanks Patti!
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agree |
David Moore (X)
: But best to avoid "full of hate" - that's nonsense here.
1 hr
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thanks David
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agree |
Alfa Trans (X)
2 hrs
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Thanks Marju
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neutral |
Nesrin
: But which sense of "hateful" do you think applies here: "deserving hatred" or "feeling hatred"?
5 hrs
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in both senses!
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agree |
Alexander Demyanov
7 hrs
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Thanks Alexander
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agree |
Richard Benham
: In answer to Nesrin's question, I think both meanings are intended. She thinks of her sister as "hateful" in the sense of "loathsome", and then realises that this is because she is, literally, "full of hate".
7 hrs
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Yes Tichard, I hadn't yet scrolled down to you when I wrote my reply to Nesrin!
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agree |
Monika Silea
: hateful in every possible meaning of the word
13 hrs
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Exactly
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agree |
Vicky Papaprodromou
22 hrs
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Thanks Vicky
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "What a Gordian knot! I'll analyse this and analyse this again. And then I'll make the Decision."
10 mins
awful/unpleaseant, without exaggeration
literally: really, actually, without exaggeration
hateful: unpleasant, deserving hatred
Please see the note below from www.answers.com :
For more than a hundred years, critics have remarked on the incoherency of using literally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of “in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words.” In 1926, for example, H.W. Fowler cited the example “The 300,000 Unionists … will be literally thrown to the wolves.” The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning of literally itself—if it did, the word would long since have come to mean “virtually” or “figuratively”—but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive, as in They had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended.
hateful: unpleasant, deserving hatred
Please see the note below from www.answers.com :
For more than a hundred years, critics have remarked on the incoherency of using literally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of “in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words.” In 1926, for example, H.W. Fowler cited the example “The 300,000 Unionists … will be literally thrown to the wolves.” The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning of literally itself—if it did, the word would long since have come to mean “virtually” or “figuratively”—but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive, as in They had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended.
Peer comment(s):
disagree |
Refugio
: Just because some people use a word wrong doesn't cause that word to lose its meaning.//On the contrary, I do disagree with the meanings in your heading, at least in this context.
16 mins
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This is just a note on the development of the meaning over the 20th century. You are not disagreeing with me, but with the opinion of certain "critics" cited by the website www.answers.com ! I just put in the note for the asker's interest.
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neutral |
Jim Tucker (X)
: the quote in question uses "literally" in a more or less correct sense - that is, she is not just awful, but truly full of hate - the speaker is drawing attention to "hate" + "full"
6 hrs
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agree |
Richard Benham
: With JT, bt also I think the more common sense, as in your heading, is also intended.
8 hrs
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+3
12 mins
literally "full of hate"
Even though "hateful" can have either meaning (according to Webster's 10th New Collegiate), it is most commonly used in the sense of "evil, deserving of or arousing hate." In this text, one sister is saying that the other is "hateful" in the more literal sense: "full of hate."
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Refugio
: Yes!
12 mins
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Thank you, Ruth. The battle against "literally" as a mere intensifier is one of my hobby horses.
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agree |
Kim Metzger
45 mins
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Thank you, Kim.
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agree |
avsie (X)
: Yes, "hate-full"!
51 mins
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I'm thank-full, Marie-Claude.
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disagree |
David Moore (X)
: To me, "hateful" has always meant "inspiring hatred (of the person described as hateful)", and not full of hate, which is quite the reverse - or the one doing the hating. And I don't much care for Webster's here...
1 hr
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I see your point, of course--that's the way I think the word is usually meant. But here, if "literally" means anything at all (see my comment to Sheila), then it means that THIS speaker means "full of hate." Thanks for a thoughtful comment, David.
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disagree |
Sheila Wilson
: With David on this, I'm afraid. I'm full of hate for her, she's hateful
2 hrs
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Carrying on with my comment to David: We would need a much larger context to know what's going on here and how this author uses words. It appears to me that the speaker uses "literally" correctly to show she's using the lesser-known meaning.Thnks, Sheila.
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agree |
Jim Tucker (X)
: You should be right - if this is the work of a good writer. Yes "literally 'full" of "hate""as you say.
6 hrs
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Thank you, Jim. Right--we don't really know if this is a careful writer. We can always hope!
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agree |
Richard Benham
: I think that both senses are intended: first "Isn't she awful!" and then "yes because she is so full of hate!".
7 hrs
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You may very well be right--if, as JT says, "this is the work of a good writer." I hope it is! Thanks, Richard.
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+1
8 hrs
both senses intended
First, I think the usual sense in which "hateful" is used is the one less justified by the etymology: something along the lines of revolting, awful, repugnant,.... There was a time when upper-class English girls would describe anything they found vaguely displeasing as "hateful", snails, the clothes their mothers made them wear....
The literal sense of "hateful" is, of course, "full of hate", and I think what is happening here is that the girl is (more or less automatically) thinking of her sister as "hateful", and then this word provokes a kind of a transition, so that she realises (or comes to think) that the reason that her sister is behaving in this "hateful" (i.e. unpleasant) way is that she is, literally, "full of hate".
The literal sense of "hateful" is, of course, "full of hate", and I think what is happening here is that the girl is (more or less automatically) thinking of her sister as "hateful", and then this word provokes a kind of a transition, so that she realises (or comes to think) that the reason that her sister is behaving in this "hateful" (i.e. unpleasant) way is that she is, literally, "full of hate".
Discussion