#Be low key meaning movie#

Key has functioned as an adjective meaning 'extremely or crucially important,' as in 'key issues' and 'a key moment in the game,' since at least as far back as the 1830s. While it's possible that the photography use led directly to the 'restrained' meaning, it's also possible that developments in the meaning of key in non-photography uses played a part in the newer sense of low-key. The Oxford English Dictionary reports that the more familiar low-key meaning of 'restrained' or 'of low intensity' was in use by the end of the first half of the 20th century. Each hinges on a photography-specific use of key itself as a term for the predominant tone of a photograph with respect to its lightness or darkness. It had a quasi-opposite: high-key describes images with light tones and little contrast. By 1897, low-key described images with dark tones and little contrast. 2018Īll this is good and fine, you might say, but where did low-key begin? Well, it started life as an art term and established itself especially in the world of photography mere decades after the term photography itself came into use.

#Be low key meaning movie#

Of course, this isn't the first time Anna playfully demonstrated that she's low-key besties with Ryan and Blake, who is Anna's co-star in the movie A Simple Favor. Is it just me, or is Beauty & The Beast a low-key dig at the French for being inept at warfare?įUR-NI-TURE.- Rohan Javet Beg August 10, 2018 Insha Fitzpatrick,, 18 July 2018Īnd because it's sometimes the way these things go, the adverbial use of low-key may also be expanding the meaning of the adjective to include subtlety and secrecy:

I already high-key want a tattoo of his art from this so badly. Nick Robles art is utterly ethereal in this comic. #InternationalCatsDay- reuben lincoln August 8, 2018 All they ever do is just chill and get hated on. It typically contrasts with the 'somewhat' meaning of low-key to mean 'totally' or 'extremely':Ĭats get a bad rap and are high-key underrated. Linguist Gretchen McCulloch explored this use of low-key a few years ago and traced its appearance in the vaunted pages of Urban Dictionary to 2009, where a contributor defined it as 'secretly or discretely' and 'slightly or kinda.' In the near-decade since, the meaning seems to have hummed along these two tracks without much variation, just low-key spreading among English speakers.Īccompanying the adverbial low-key is its somewhat less common sibling, high-key. The first of these carries a meaning like those in the tweets above it, but in the second example, low-key is an adverb of manner, modifying the adjective with a meaning of something like 'subtly' or 'in a veiled way.' Rafe Godfrey, The Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail, 10 Aug. 2018Īnd I have to wonder: Did Justice receive low-key threatening letters similar to those my wife and I got when we owed around $100 in state taxes? Somehow, I doubt it…. Reggie Hayes, The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana), 9 Aug. But this fall's football duel might well be a first: They're low-key racing to see who picks a quarterback first. Shortly after time began, Indiana and Purdue universities started competing in sports. It means something along the lines of 'kinda' or 'somewhat' or 'in a subdued way.'Īdverbial low-key is also appearing in news publications, often with a slightly different meaning: It's functioning in these examples as a classic adverb of degree, modifying a verb to temper it into something a bit subtler. #PGAChamp- Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 August 12, 2018 if I miss Tiger Woods' historic comeback. I'm losing satellite signal and low-key panicking.

I barely have time to listen to albums of artist I like, how y’all got ALL this energy to listen and then report back about rappers you low-key hate?- G.L. After more than a century of life as an adjective, it's increasingly spied in full-on adverbial mode: Low-key (also styled as low-keyed) has historically been one such word, but these days it's doing something pretty daring: moving into new semantic territory. They just keep doing their thing, helpfully contributing to an utterance's meaning without making much of a fuss. Some words are, you know, pretty low-key. Update: This meaning was added in October 2021