The word "legit" at beginning of sentences

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Whenever I read something that starts with the word "legit", I get confused and the sentence doesn't appear to make sense to me. I see this word appearing in those memes on Facebook entertainment pages, and call me uneducated but I do not understand the use of that word.

"Legit raining on the day of the carnival"

"I legit remember these toys from the '90s"

"Legit when your best friend accidentally slaps you"

I never use "legit" when speaking, and I've never heard others use it either, but lately I keep seeing it appear in sentences on the internet, making me misunderstand the whole sentence. Is it a new fad that (mostly Americans) use on the internet, like the annoying word "bae"? I know legit is an existing word but is it's use being a word young people use in memes or something?

I would guess it is shorthand for something like "For real, man..." or "No sh1t, man...", as if people need to be told what follows is actually true.

^ I've never heard the word used like this either, but the example at the top of this page would tend to confirm your opinion:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... git&page=2

I've never heard of people using the word "legit" that way before. It sounds really dumb. Like when people say "literally" to describe something that isn't literal or is obviously literal.

I like legit better than really in some ways.

Also, it makes me think of MC Hammer.

It means something like "seriously" or "really," basically a figure of speech used to for emphasis.

Originally short for "legitimate".

Also never heard it used that way.

But it probably means "definitely", "fur shur", or maybe even "I can corroborate it" (as in "I legit remembering those toys from the 90's".

Sounds dumb. But not AS dumb as "he literally died laughing" (when he isn't having a funeral, because his death was only figurative ).

That's not what it means in this context. Why try to answer the OP's question if you have no experience with this usage of the word?

And are you really 62 years old? I think the ages are displaying incorrectly again.

What's worse is "I'm just kidding." "I'm just joking." or even "It was a joke".

If I say I bet today's our lucky day because there may be a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.

You respond with a blank look.

I say I'm joking.

Would you really believe that I actually meant that there is a real pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Really believe it? Because if so then you may have the problem and not me, because I know when I am joking and make it as clear as possible.

A) why single me out? Every other above poster said the same thing. "Never heard the expression before, but I think it means thus".

B) I HAVE experienced it (just now for the first time by seeing the OP's examples quoted above). So I can use logical deduction to guess what the folks probably meant by it.

C) So it "doesn't mean that in that context"?

Really.

So drop the other shoe and tell us it what it DOES mean then.

Not trying to be provocative. Just sayin that your post sounds odd because it declares that X means something other than what I said it meant, but it doesn't go on to say what that other thing is that X means.

Legit maybe it means "Leg it", like a dog at a fire hydrant.

"leg it remember those toys from the Nineties".

In other words:

"I urinate upon my memory of those toys existing in the Nineties".

Umm...

That doesn't really make any sense.

In contrast "I legitimately remember those toys existing in the 90's" has some logic.
And also using the abbreviated form of "legitimate" makes you sound hip, and cool, like MC Hammer in "Too Legit to Quit".

So I am going with the "legit" theory.

It's like "seriously." It's used for emphasis.

No they didn't. You were the first person to say that you weren't familiar with it and offer a meaning that you came up with.

Ok. "Also never heard it used that way" seemed to suggest otherwise.


I already have. Read my first response in this thread.

Let's think of ways it could be used wrongly, following the current rules of usage.

Legit a bastard. The definition of bastard precludes legitimacy.

Literal interpretations are not the only rules of usage. "Legit" is not really being used literally in the context the OP is talking about.

Actually, "legit a bastard" makes perfect sense regardless of whether you interpret "legit" as this sort of slang the OP is talking about or interpret it to mean "legitimately." "Legit" and "bastard" may be incongruous (like jumbo shrimp), but using them together this way isn't incorrect.