I can be a bit grumpy when a word gets misused, literally is one such word which is both over used and inappropriately used at times. It was a surprise to me to find a whole new word this week that sounds the same.

Littoral…

But before I get onto my new word an anecdote about being taken literally.

I had talked to a patient for a little while who was about to have a breast examination. To conclude the chatting part of the appointment I said, while gesticulating to a stool in the corner of the room.

” O.K that’s lovely, if you could just pop your top on there, we can get on”

I gave her a moment while I finished writing my note. When I looked up she was nowhere to be seen.  When I stood up there was an awkward sight.

She had knelt on the floor and arranged her two naked breasts on top of the stool.

Which is a huge amount more interesting than my littoral story.

Which involves a large bug . You can’t possibly know that he was a large bug because I failed to put another object in the photo for scale. He was probably as long as a finger. Google lens tells me he is a Bilge Bug or Sea Slater and he lives in the littoral zone. Bilge bugs live for three years. Every day is literally a school day.