Is legit an actual word, or is it a slang word that has been shortened from legitimate?
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8It depends on what you mean by "actual word." I would consider it slang and avoid it in business or formal communications, but you may find it in some dictionaries. – choster Feb 26 '14 at 16:45
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52Legit2Quit - MC Hammer – Keltari Feb 26 '14 at 22:07
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55I was hoping for the title *Is "legit" legit?*. – Drew Feb 26 '14 at 22:15
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8it's straight up legit. – Feb 26 '14 at 22:35
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2it would be discriminitative if it was not – nicolas Feb 26 '14 at 22:47
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1It's a perfectly reasonable word but rather informal. – David Richerby Feb 27 '14 at 00:11
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1I don't see what the problem is, it's a perfectly cromulent word. – User1000547 Feb 27 '14 at 22:11
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1What precisely would make a word illegitimate? – Elliott Frisch Feb 27 '14 at 22:18
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3Using "legit" improves your street credibility. – David Schwartz Feb 28 '14 at 00:11
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I think it's relevant to add to the discussion that, although "legit" is supposed to be a short form of legitimate, it's taken over in some areas as the new "sick", "cool", "wicked" etc. "Dude, you were hammered last night, it was so legit!". – Cruncher Feb 27 '14 at 15:13
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@ElliottFrisch Exactly, everising is legititimate. – nicolas Mar 01 '14 at 10:21
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Appeared in the NYT crossword as a clue for the answer "KOSHER"... – Tyler James Young Mar 04 '14 at 18:55
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Someone please make the title "Is "legit" a legit word?"! – Dog Lover Aug 17 '15 at 23:05
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2Is "OK" an OK word? – John Lawler May 23 '16 at 13:54
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@JohnLawler Might this interest you? – Araucaria - Him May 23 '16 at 14:09
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I've always thought that the only difference was that legit was negative and legitimate was positive. – Dec 18 '15 at 22:30
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I'm late to this convo, but natch it's legit. In fact, some might say it's totes adorbs. – Sven Yargs Jul 04 '18 at 04:09
5 Answers
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A string of letters doesn’t have to be in a dictionary to be a word, but, as it happens, there is an entry for legit in the Oxford English Dictionary, where it is given as both an adjective and a noun and defined as being a colloquial abbreviation of legitimate. The earliest citation is from 1897.
Whether and how you use it is up to you.
Barrie England
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4@James Here's the first OED example: “Bob is envious of Corbett's success as a *‘legit’.” And the second: “1897 - National Police Gaz. (U.S.) 26 May 6/1 - Bob now wants to go into the ‘legit’*.” The entry also mentions the phrase “on the legit”. – Tyler James Young Feb 27 '14 at 20:32
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Is legit an actual word, or is it a slang word that has been shortened from legitimate?
Any "or" question can be broken down into two questions, so let's do that.
Is legit an actual word?
There are two common definitions for "actual"; it can mean "existing" or it can mean "genuine". So let's break that down into two questions:
Is legit an existing word?
Well, what is a word? In this case I suppose you mean that a word is the textual representation of a meaningful unit of language.
By that measure I would say that legit is a word and that moreover it exists.
Is legit a genuine word? That is, does it actually have the qualities of a textual representation of a meaningful unit of language?
I'm pretty sure it does, yes.
So by either definition it would appear that legit is an "actual word".
Now to come to your second question:
Is legit a slang word that has been shortened from legitimate?
Yes.
So the answer to both halves of your "or" question is "yes".
Summing up: Seems legit.
Eric Lippert
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In almost any context, people would understand what you meant by "legit", but it's not completely cromulent.
tobyink
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5'Legit' is one thing; but what in the world does 'cromulent' mean? Oxford Dictionaries have never heard of it! – WS2 Feb 26 '14 at 16:59
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3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Iconoclast#Embiggen_and_cromulent – tobyink Feb 26 '14 at 17:04
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1Can it be used as a noun - e.g. 'cromulence'? And how does the verb form? Is it 'cromulentify' or 'cromulesce'? – WS2 Feb 26 '14 at 17:27
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3@WS2 - no, it doesn't, and neither. Have a "cromulent" day! :-) – Kristina Lopez Feb 26 '14 at 17:53
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6@WS2: Oxford dictionaries notwithstanding, cromulent is a perfectly cromulent word, as used by Professors of Linguistics on a regular basis. :) – FumbleFingers Feb 26 '14 at 18:19
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Like Barrie England is saying, it's a colloquial abbreviation of legitimate. What needs to be emphasized for non-native speakers is that "legit" is used colloquially which means that you should not use this in formal speech or writing.
The urban dictionary entry also alludes to the fact that its use is becoming more synonymous with the slang term cool.
Alex W
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1Really important point here. Do NOT use "legit" in formal prose, as it is the wrong register. – outis nihil Feb 27 '14 at 15:43
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It is undoubtedly a shortened version of the word "legitimate".
So it is as much a legitimate word as you are ready to accept language bastardization.
nicolas
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Your insinuation that English is not an uncultured mutt of a language is in keeping with even a cursory understanding of the tongue's history. – DougM Feb 26 '14 at 22:57
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Nop need, http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002579.html – jmoreno Feb 27 '14 at 03:27
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@nicolas At what point did English achieve perfect crystallization? Surely some pure baseline must have been achieved at some point for us to be talking about a subsequent decline. How does any language come to be? – Dave Magner Jul 14 '14 at 19:51
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@DaveMagner, this is very enlightening. https://www.amazon.com/Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-Mankinds-Invention/dp/0805080120 – Dwayne Towell Mar 08 '21 at 16:27
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