[Ads-l] Query on "low(-)key"

[Laurence Horn]

Thanks much, Ben.  I had a vague memory of that--hadn't realized the
"highkey" spinoff has been around that long!

Larry

On Wed, Sep 10, 2025 at 11:31 AM Ben Zimmer <
00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> "Lowkey" was a nominee in the 2015 ADS WOTY voting, appearing in the Most
> Creative category. Both "lowkey" and "highkey" got the "Among the New
> Words" treatment in Feb. 2016 (AmSp 91.1) along with other nominees.
>
> http://bit.ly/ATNW91-1
>
> --bgz
>
> On Wed, Sep 10, 2025 at 11:22 AM Laurence Horn <
> 00001c05436ff7cf-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > This is for a student working on a semantic/pragmatic analysis of
> > adverbial “low(-)key”, both in its use as a downtoning scalar modifier
> > (“I’m low-key happy about it”= ‘kind of/somewhat happy’, often with a
> > suggestion of reluctance to admit it) and as a downtoning marker
> indicating
> > weakened speaker commitment “Lowkey, can we eat outside?” = ‘I’m
> > tentatively suggesting that we eat outside’).  The distinction is similar
> > to one for other adverbs like “totally” that have been discussed in the
> > literature.
> >
> > What my student and I are wondering is whether there’s any work out there
> > we should know about, and how and when this originated (as a shift from
> the
> > adjectival “low(-)key”).  Was there a mention in Among the New Words I
> > should know about?  A WOTY nomination from years past?
> >
> > (The OED just has the adjectival source, “low-key” glossed as ‘modest’,
> > but nothing on the adverb in either use. There’s a lot more on TikTok!)
> >
> > Thanks,
> > LH
> >
>
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>

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