Slang Term “Legit”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Charlie Hayes and I’m calling from Santa Cruz, California.

Hello, Charlie.

Hello, Charlie. How are you doing?

Hi, I’m doing all right.

I’ve been listening to your podcast. I’ve been listening to them all in a row. And in a recent podcast, you had a caller who asked what the cool kids are using instead of cool.

-huh.

And I have a little bit of input on that.

You’re one of the cool kids?

No, I am not one of the cool kids, but I am an SAT prep teacher.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, so I’m working with all of the college-bound cool kids.

Okay, you’re on the front lines. You must hear a lot.

And they’re still speaking English, right?

Yes, they are still speaking. Well, actually…

That’s your job.

One of my kids, instead of speaking…

Okay, so here’s one of the popular words. The popular word is fresh. Like, instead of cool, they say fresh. I tried to explain to them that they took that from, like, hip-hop and even before that from, you know, African-American culture. It’s not that new, but they still like it. But one of my students, instead of saying fresh because he wants to be different, he says fresco because he’s in Spanish class, I guess.

Oh, okay.

Is it catching on?

He’s trying to make it not catch on because he wants it to remain his thing.

I see.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Well, job done because I’d never heard anybody use it that way.

Yeah, yeah.

But the main reason I was calling that is a slightly different word, which is legit.

Legit?

As in too legit to quit?

Yes, exactly. Another one of those things that I said, it’s not as new as you think it is, but all right.

Wait, so they’re taking all the slang from my childhood and they’re reusing it?

Yes, yes.

Oh, that’s very green. Recycle those slings.

Yeah. Legit has taken on this weird paradigm, I guess you would call it. I mean, it works in several different ways now, though. They use legit to mean cool. So like, oh, that’s legit is, oh, that’s cool.

Oh, really? I haven’t heard that. Have you, Grant?

No, I haven’t. Not that particular use of legit, no.

Yeah, it’s super big at all the schools around Santa Cruz County. And I even have one student who uses it in place of the word really. Like when you’re asking a question, when you say, oh, I heard that that’s a good place. If you’re incredulous and you would normally say, really? They say legit with that same upward inflection.

Oh, really?

Legit?

Oh, legit.

Oh, that’s interesting stuff.

I did not know that.

Yeah.

Well, that’s crazy. You know, and legit’s another one of those. Legit has been a slang clipping of the word legitimate for more than a century. I mean, they have kind of changed the ways in which it’s being used, but its roots are old and deep.

Is there a negative of it?

Oh, that’s ill legit.

Oh, ill.

Just ill?

But not that kind of ill. I don’t think they’ve thought it through that far. I actually can’t remember any new slang for bad.

Well, they’re still saying whack, maybe?

I don’t get a lot of whack. I usually get that sucks. I think that sucks. It’s pretty big.

All right.

Yeah.

So it sounds like what you’re telling us is nothing is new under the sun?

Not really. They all treat it like it’s brand new and like it’s the freshest thing around.

Yeah, it’s funny, Charlie. When I give presentations or speeches to crowds and people start to talk to me about the latest slang, and they simply do not believe me when I say, well, yeah, actually that word that you think is new is from the 1600s. They simply can’t accept it. And if they were to drop all of the slang from their language that’s older than they are, then they would just speak normal English.

Yeah, there wouldn’t be anything left.

So how do they react when you tell them this?

Well, they tend to believe me to a certain extent because they kind of like me being their teacher. I’m kind of hip enough to not offend them into just outright disbelief. But they still kind of, you know, they latch onto it anyway, and they still think it’s the coolest way to talk, and it gets them through another day of high school.

Whatever it takes, right?

It’s all about membership in the right groups, right? And the language that you use lets everyone know which group you’re a part of.

Very good.

That word legit is actually, like, too cool for school because the girl who used it the most with me actually got kicked out of school for throwing a raging party.

Oh.

So she’s really legit.

Yeah, she’s super legit.

Okay.

That’s cool.

The coolest of the cool kids.

Thanks for sharing with us today. This is good stuff.

Thanks for the field report.

Grant’s madly taking notes.

Oh, yeah, this is great stuff, yeah.

I’m caught up for another year.

All right.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

Thanks, John.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, we’d love to get your field reports. What are the kids talking about these days? And if you’re a kid yourself, feel free to call 1-877-929-9673 or send in an email to words@waywordradio.org.