BE LOW KEY MEANING SERIES

And when they don’t see one of you, people inquire. Your relationship is a general knowledge that everywhere you go, your partner follows. They have seen you many times together, asked you about your affair, and you have confirmed it. That means not only your close friends are aware, but also family members and acquaintances. To better understand a low key relationship, it is best to state the difference between private and public relationships.Ī public relationship is one where everyone knows you and your partner are in a relationship. How do you tell the difference between private and secret relationships? Also, what does it mean to be low-key? What is a low key relationship? That can be confusing because you don’t know if they are not proud of the relationship or want it to be a low-key relationship. It looks like they want to keep your relationship private but not a secret. He doesn’t explicitly state it, but you believe the public display and announcement don’t freak them. Expectedly, you are excited and can’t wait to tell your friends and family or even show your PDA. Officially, you are now a couple hoping to build a healthy relationship. But first, what is a low key relationship?Īfter several days or weeks of talking or going on a date, you and your love interest finally decide to take it further. It's just been lowkey waiting for us to notice it.Low key relationships can be confusing because they can make you question the intensity of the relationship. In a way, it's fitting that lowkey has been around for at least six years but it hasn't been documented outside Urban Dictionary and a few obscure sites. I'm highkey about you, but trying to be lowkey about you Lowkey want a relationship highkey don't wanna be disappointed Lowkey in love with you highkey never gonna let you know People on Twitter often use it to talk about unrequited crushes: Although highkey isn't nearly as common as lowkey, there are still lots of examples. When you're lowkey sad af but trying not to careĪnd unlike the 'low-key party' meaning, new lowkey also has an opposite: highkey. I wish one of my lowkey crushes had a lowkey crush on me so we could like lowkey make out and stuff Here are a few more examples from twitter:įinding nemo is lowkey one of my all time favorite moviesīritish people r so intolerant of each other we all lowkey want each other dead 'I didn't think I would be but I'm lowkey sad that my roommate is moving out.'Īdverb lowkey is really common online, but I couldn't find anyone analyzing or commenting on it yet, and also it hasn't yet made its way into dictionaries ( psst, any lexicographers reading this?). 'He's moving to Chicago in three weeks but the semester isn't over for another seven weeks. I was lowkey excited about the party.i was kinda excited about the party. It's not even that new-it shows up in Urban Dictionary from 2009: But while old low-key is an adjective (a low-key party, that party was low-key), new lowkey is an adverb. In any case, there's a clear connection to the new lowkey: meaning-wise, the ideas of quiet/relaxed and kinda/subtly aren't so far apart. There's also a 'low-key' that's used in photography, where it means 'dark, with little or no fill light and high lighting ratio,' which may be where 'low-key' as in 'low-key party' came from (sources are unclear on this though.) Im going out tonight but it's pretty low key work tomorrow so tonight's going to be a low key event. Keep something low key: to not announce it to have a quiet gathering opposite of a large party or big group of people not much emphasis, closely aligned with a normal night out doing the usual stuff. In fact, even Urban Dictionary has 'low key' with the same meaning in 2005: : quiet and relaxed : not very forceful, emotional, or noticeable Mainstream dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster, have low-key with a hyphen, as in a low-key party. It's pretty clear where lowkey comes from. They're not beckoning widely at the imaginary waiter or calling out that something's caught on fire-no, it's not urgent, they're playing it cool, making some eye contact, waiting for the waiter to notice them. A great example is this tweet:Īlthough of course the picture was originally taken for other reasons, if we assume that the actors in this photo were actually trying to get their waiter's attention, it's a great illustration of what it looks like to do something lowkey. Here's a word that you might not have noticed before: lowkey.

BE LOW KEY MEANING SERIES

How is language evolving on the internet? In this series on internet linguistics, Gretchen McCulloch breaks down the latest innovations in online communication.

Be low key meaning