“I legit almost bought these exact same sunglasses. Except … they were Ray Bans. And my wife said I couldn’t spend $170 on a pair of sunglasses.”
I thought to myself, “Hmmm. That is a funny thing to say.” And also, “What a freakin weirdo.” And then off to the shoe section I went, nary a care in the world.
Fast forward to last night. I am lying in bed, thinking about this man’s use of the word legit. It stuck out to me, and I could not shake it. I was pretty sure he was using the word “legit” wrong, but I was also pretty sure that I have used the word “legit” wrong too. For example, here is a sample tweet I was thinking about while I was tending to Sam and his night terror.
“Sam is having the worst night terror ever. I legit thought his head would spin around.”
Now, maybe it was because it was late at night, or because I
had heard that Creepy Target Employee use the word legit earlier, but I thought
that would have been a reasonable tweet I would have posted.
Then, I thought, what do I know about the word legit? Here is what I came up with without the internet:
Then, I thought, what do I know about the word legit? Here is what I came up with without the internet:
- I know it is short for legitimately, which I take to mean in my non-internet
Bri terms: “for real.” Sample sentence: This ID is legitimately yours.
- MC Hammer sings about being 2 Legit, 2 Quit. This is a tad
confusing to me, as I don’t remember any of the other words to the song besides,
“Hey HEY!” and “HEeeeeyyyyYYY.” I mean, taking it out of context and also from
my limited MC Hammer knowledge, he is trying to send a message that he is going
to be around for a long time. Maybe he is singing directly to the group of
people who was stealing all of the money from him. Perhaps this was some sort of foreshadowing
for his bankrupt future. (That may be another blog post entirely).
- Also, the ever so popular opposite word, illegitimate, which is widely used to describe children born out of wedlock.
So, then I looked it up and its official definition. Here is
what I found:
1. Being in compliance with the law; lawful: a legitimate business.
1. Being in compliance with the law; lawful: a legitimate business.
2. Being in accordance with established or accepted patterns
and standards: legitimate advertising practices.
3. Based on logical reasoning; reasonable: a legitimate
solution to the problem.
4. Authentic; genuine: a legitimate complaint.
5. Born of legally married parents: legitimate issue.
I feel I am sort of close to my non-internet Bri definition. But LEGIT is something different, so I turned to the very knowledgeable Urban Dictionary for help and got this:
1. (adj.) A modern synonym for words such as
"cool," "ill," "tight," or "dope." Used
to describe a noun that is of a particularly excellent quality. The slang use
of this term is slowly but steadily increasing in popularity.
You guys, I don’t know if I am okay with this. I am assuming that when people shorten the word legitimately to “legit” they are using it as “for real,” and to add emphasis to the other words. Like the Creepy Target Employee, and even my night terror tweet. But, I can’t help but think this is ALL WRONG. Much the same way that people wrongly use the word “literally.”
Then, I thought about how recently the dictionaries decided
that they would add the definition of the WRONG USAGE of the word literally to
the dictionary. I suppose because, everyone was using it wrong anyway, so we
might as well make them feel good about themselves and just tell them they are
right. This is not okay! Have we no language standards? Creepy Target Employee
is now creating the rules on the English language. That is not cool.
(DROPS MIKE)
(not literally)
1 comment:
Wow! This actually was a lesson for me.As you well know I continue to brutalize the English language, but in a way that is my M.O,
(slang for Modus operandi, the way or pattern in which a repeat criminal usually commits his/her crime.)
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