Literally speaking

Literally, adv. The OED recognises the following meanings:

†1.1 nonce-uses. a By the letters (of a name). b In letters or literature. Obsolete.

1593 R. Harvey Philad. 7 And yet I tell you me-thinkes you are very bookishly and literally wise.

2. a With reference to a report, translation, etc.: In the very words, word for word. b transf. With exact fidelity of representation.

3. a. In the literal sense. 3. b Used to indicate that the following word or phrase must be taken in its literal sense.

 Now often improperly used to indicate that some conventional metaphorical or hyperbolical phrase

is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense, e.g.   1863 F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 105 For the last four years.. I literally coined money.

I have always been fascinated by the use of the adverb literally, both in English and in French. I was brought up, very firmly, to use this adverb to mean, and this would admit of no exception, in the literal sense, as in the OED’s definition 3 above. The note at the end points out an ‘improper’ usage: I literally coined money. It would never occur to me to say something like this, so effectively have I been trained not to. It’s like unique which must never be qualified; rather/very unique are not acceptable. If you do accept this, then you must also accept that someone can be a little pregnant. As an afterthought, I do like the use in definition 1 which is today unfortunately obsolete and has been replaced by literarily.

In France, the situation is more fluid.

Littéralement, adverb.  Larousse gives the following two possible meanings :

D'une manière littérale, à la lettre : Traduire littéralement. This is the same as senses 2 and 3 of the OED.  

Absolument, tout à fait : Il était littéralement épouvanté. [he was literally frightened/shocked]. Here we have the equivalent of the qualifiers absolutely or quite. But it is still parallel to English usage; one can be literally frightened.

Larousse goes on to make the following recommendations:

‘Littéralement au sens de «  à la lettre, dans un sens strict  » s'emploie dans tous les registres : traduire un texte littéralement ; au sens de «  très, à l'extrême  » (il est littéralement épuisé), le mot relève de l'expression orale non surveillée.’ It confirms that the adverb should be used as in the two French definitions, but suggests that this usage belongs to the register of spoken language, spontaneous, not careful French.

Larousse goes on to recommend that in careful speech and in writing littéralement should be replaced by completely, extremely etc. ‘Dans l'expression soignée, en particulier à l'écrit, préférer les équivalents : complètement, extrêmement, au plus haut point, au plus haut degré, etc.’

Here is an example of the use of this adverb which is typical of its use in current French. The caption accompanies a photo of an object under water: Cet élément qui appartenait au Titanic a été littéralement pulvérisé lors du choc.[This object from the Titanic was literally pulverised on impact].

It’s all the more improbable as the concepts of underwater and powder are incompatible.

This leads neatly onto the verb pulverise which behaves in a similar way to literally and derives from the Latin pulver for powder. In French, pulveriser has these definitions [from Larousse]:

Réduire une matière en poudre : Pulvériser de la craie ; du charbon. {pulverise chalk]

Projeter un liquide en très fines gouttelettes : Pulvériser de l'eau sur une plante. [water, spray]

Réduire quelque chose en miettes, en morceaux : Les bombes ont pulvérisé l'objectif. [smash]

Anéantir quelqu'un, un groupe, le vaincre de manière écrasante : Pulvériser l'ennemi. [destroy]

In English, we have the same meanings as in French, but the reference to liquid in definition 1b is now rare and has been superseded by spray.

1. trans. To reduce to powder or dust; to comminute, to triturate. Also refl.

b. techn. To divide (a liquid) into minute particles or spray.

2. fig. To demolish or destroy, to break down utterly; to ‘smash’. “ The four battalion were pulverised... “ [The OED favours the spelling with ‘z’. I prefer the ‘s’ spelling].

In French, we find: Le gel du 18 août et celui qui est survenu début septembre ont littéralement décimé les récoltes. [The frosts … literally decimated the crops]. Here again we have this particular French usage of literally  and decimate. English would not say literally decimate, although it often uses this verb to mean destroy as in French. Both English and French agree that the careful use of this verb means:

To kill, destroy, or remove one in every ten of, but accepts the meaning, rhetorically or loosely, to destroy or remove a large proportion of; to subject to severe loss, slaughter, or mortality. (OED)

In French, décimer, (Latin decimare) has the same values as in English. Words mostly share the same meanings in different languages, but can differ hugely in the way they are used, especially in the spoken idiom.