[Ads-l] "legitimately" to mean "very"

Stanton McCandlish smccandlish at GMAIL.COM
Sun Sep 26 04:56:37 UTC 2021


I've been a bit annoyed with a trend I'd heard spoken, and maybe seen in
texting, of using "legitimately" as a general intensifier like "very" or
"completely" or "so".  Now I've run across it in *Washington** Post*,
albeit in quoted speech: "It was legitimately horrible."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/cool-sculpting-linda-evangelista-fat-freezing/2021/09/24/85ade25a-1d6b-11ec-a99a-5fea2b2da34b_story.html

Can something be illegitimately horrible?

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