Geoffrey Tolhurst's Flat 4 Kings Cross contains an early citation of the slang term "lit".(
Supplied: Austlit
)Walter Downing, a law student-cum-lexicographer who served in World War I, would later write of a particularly Australian use of "lit up", meaning infected with venereal disease.
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Another meaning of "lit" that has developed over the last decade is an adjectival one, meaning that something (usually an sự kiện or situation) is hyped or outstanding.
Commonly, this sense is found in the phrase "it's lit" — or, lớn go whole hog, "it's lit fam" (that lattermost word being a contraction of family).
A precise origin eludes lexicographers: Google trends data shows a spike in lookups beginning in năm trước, but Urban Dictionary entries for this sense date baông chồng khổng lồ 2009. At the same time, this sense appears in West Coast rap music, though it had shown up on the East Coast as early as 1997.
It's lit blows up
While he certainly didn't invent the phrase, the phrase "it's lit" has had a substantial champion over the last five sầu years in the form of Houston-based rapper Travis Scott.
You see, in addition to being a phenomenally successful producer (and, it should be noted, Kylie Jenner's boyfriend) Scott is a prolific ad-libber.
A brief side note: ad-lib is something of an unusual term. Most words that entered English through their use in musical notation come through Italian (tempo, soprano, sotkhổng lồ voce).
Ad-lib borrows directly from Latin, being a shortening of ad libitum ("with pleasure"). Its purpose in sheet music was khổng lồ indicate that any given performer could ignore a written part at their discretion.
LoadingIn rap — a genre where "freestyle" is the term more often used khổng lồ describe an improvised movement — ad-libs generally refer lớn short vocal drops that are specific lớn each rap artist.
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Kendriông xã Lamar has lately taken to lớn pre-empting his verses shouting "Kung Fu Kenny", an alternate moniker. Jay-Z exhales in a particularly distinctive sầu manner. Rap wunderkind Desiigner uses a gunshot noise.
And Travis Scott — on his own works, và his prolific guest features — says "it's lit".
While he doesn't have sầu a trademark on the phrase (Eminem has also used it in his work) Scott's usage is so distinctive that the scholars over at open-source lyrics trang web Genius have listed "it's lit" as a pure Scottism.
Scott joins a prodigious crew: up there with rappers A$APhường Mob yelling "Yamborghini", or Action Bronson starting every tuy vậy shouting "Mr Baklava".
Death by corporate adoption
There was a time where a slang term's time of death was dependent on when parents start using it.
But in the opening decades of the 21st century, the death of popular slang items is more often predicated on their adoption by brands.
So it is with "it's lit", a phrase which has since 2014 been used everywhere from Canadian educational television lớn perhaps the platonic igiảm giá khuyến mãi of corporate monolithery: a Google advertising document called "It's Lit: A Guide To What Teens Think Is Cool."
According khổng lồ Google, Oreos và michael-shanks.comflix are "lit", lifestyle clothing brvà Patagonia is not.
It seems Travis Scott (or anyone else striving to sound hip with the teens) may have sầu to lớn find a new ad-lib.
Tiger Webb is a researcher with michael-shanks.com Language.
Posted 17 JanJanuary 2018WedWednesday 17 JanJanuary 2018 at 3:35am, updated 17 JanJanuary 2018WedWednesday 17 JanJanuary 2018 at 5:26am
