[Ads-l] "low-key" = "kind of" cit from Boston Globe

[Ben Zimmer]

Adverbial "low(-)key" has become pretty common since it was in the running
for 2015 ADS Word of the Year (along with its more unusual antonym
"highkey"). Gretchen McCulloch wrote about it for Mental Floss that year:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71558/lowkey-word-thats-lowkey-snuck-our-vocabulary

See the Feb. 2016 edition of "Among the New Words" (AmSp 91.1) with cites
for "lowkey"/"highkey" back to 2008:

https://bit.ly/ATNW91-1

Merriam-Webster noted the adverbial sense in its "Words We're Watching"
series in 2018 and revised the "low-key" entry to include it last year.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-were-watching-low-key
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/low-key

Dictionary.com and Oxford Dictionaries have also added the sense.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/low-key
https://premium.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/low-key

(Oxford entries require a premium link now that Lexico has gone away.)

--bgz

On Mon, Sep 26, 2022 at 2:02 PM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> "low-key" = "kind of" usage/sense:
>
> Published in Sept. 25, 2022 Boston Globe Magazine, p. 15, in the Love
> Letters column:
>
> "I’m 23 and have never had a serious relationship. . . . And lastly 3.
> How do I stop getting low-key bummed out from seeing happy couples (and
> secretly wishing I had what they have)?"
>
>
>
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/21/magazine/i-have-crush-fictional-character-im-not-sure-how-find-real-love/
>
>
>

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