low-key
low-key, lowkey – avverbio
Smurphy’s music is low-key bewildering – it’s very odd and disarming, but also ambient and comfortable.
Most fans are still kind of low-key wondering why is he going backwards creatively by re-hashing an old concept he created years ago.
He low-key had a very good season before he got injured last year.
I wanna feel lowkey included in the activities y’all are doing.
I lowkey fell asleep listening to the last half of the CD, but this was because the songs are pretty soothing.
L’aggettivo low-key è in circolazione da quasi un secolo, ma di recente ha assunto anche funzione di avverbio (talvolta nella forma unita, lowkey) col significato di ‘moderately’ o ‘to some extent’, ed è spesso usato per mitigare l’intensità dell’affermazione che segue, analogamente a ‘kind of’. Inoltre lo si utilizza per ammettere qualcosa di leggermente imbarazzante, come nell’ultimo esempio dato. Esiste anche il termine highkey, dal significato opposto, che serve a rafforzare l’affermazione.
Origini del termine
Sia low-key sia high-key vengono dal campo della pittura e della fotografia, in riferimento alla prevalenza di toni scuri o chiari del dipinto o della foto. Il loro uso in funzione avverbiale ha preso piede nel decennio in corso.
Traduzione di Loredana Riu
low-key, lowkey – adverb
Smurphy’s music is low-key bewildering – it’s very odd and disarming, but also ambient and comfortable.
Most fans are still kind of low-key wondering why is he going backwards creatively by re-hashing an old concept he created years ago.
He low-key had a very good season before he got injured last year.
I wanna feel lowkey included in the activities y’all are doing.
I lowkey fell asleep listening to the last half of the CD, but this was because the songs are pretty soothing.
The adjective low-key meaning restrained and modest, not flashy or showy, has been around for almost a century. In recent years, however, low-key or lowkey has started to be used as an adverb meaning, well, what, exactly? It can mean ‘moderately’ or ‘to some extent’, and is often used to undercut the force or intensity of what is being said, like ‘kind of’. But it’s also used confessionally, to admit to something that is a little bit embarrassing, as in the last example above. There is another term, highkey, that is used in the opposite way, to reinforce what you are saying.
Origin
The terms low-key and high-key come from art and photography where they refer to a predominance of darker or lighter tones or colours. Their use as adverbs dates from the present decade.
