Place and time: a study group in south Manchester, circa 1970. The question arises among its members why a certain writer has made the argument he has, and one of the group, M, says, 'He's just pissing around.' After a pause M adds, 'Not literally pissing around, but...' - at which the others present all burst out laughing. It being obvious to them that the writer wasn't actually doing what was alleged by M, they find the 'not literally' redundant and funny. But M had a point in saying it, all the same. He wasn't using 'pissing around' in its original sense - to mean urinating freely here and there - but in the derivative meaning that is now standard for that expression and is roughly equivalent to 'playing the fool'. M's meaning was that though the writer in question hadn't been intending to play the fool, to be frivolous, the calibre of his argument was such that it was not to be taken seriously.
This anecdote, which reproduces a real memory, is prompted by the column here on misapplications of the word 'literally'. It is easy to reel off examples of people using some term metaphorically at the same time as claiming to use it in its exact, dictionary-defined, sense. You can find examples here and here. Often the discrepancy between the claim to literal meaning and the metaphorical phrase is so clear that it is indeed funny or inept or both.
All the same I want to register a plea that things are not always so clear and this for a reason which is fundamental to how language is used and how it evolves. The distinction between the literal and the metaphorical or figurative is not always so sharp.
For example, if it is the case, as I think it may be, that the verb 'to race' meant something like to take part in competitive running before it meant to go fast (as in 'her heart was racing'), and that the second meaning is derivative of the first and was originally metaphorical, then to say that her heart was literally racing would appear to be a solecism. However, today to go fast is just a standard dictionary meaning of 'to race'.
Similarly, if 'to play the fool' derived originally from acting the part of a fool or jester on stage, one might want to rule pedantically that a person can't literally play the fool offstage, in life. But he can if one of the standard meanings of that expression is now 'to act like a fool'.
'England collapsed.' Did they really? 'And how. They literally collapsed - from 107 for no wicket to 141 all out.' A metaphor masquerading as a literal meaning? But in the context of cricket 'collapse' has no other meaning than a spectacular batting debacle.
I put this up for discussion anyway. Literal and metaphorical meanings aren't always clearly divided. (For help with background research, thanks CB.)
