legitimacy

Etymology

It is formed from English legitimate + -acy.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The adjective legitimate comes from Medieval Latin lēgitimātus (“made lawful”), from Latin lēgitimus (“lawful”), from lēx (“law”).^[7][8] The older noun in English was legitimateness.^[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Conformity to the law, to rules or to a recognized principle; lawfulness: 1625, in E. Chaloner's Credo Ecclesiam Sanctam Catholicam.^[2] This antedates the late 17th-century date given by other dictionaries: 1691 in Merriam-Webster, the 1690s in Etymonline.^[9][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense of being a legitimate child appears in 1641,^[2] and it was the first sense Johnson gave in 1755, followed by "genuineness".^[5] That second sense, of a thing being what it appears to be, was used from 1695 to 1808.^[2][3] From 1812 the word was used of rulers and governments, for the lawful right to govern, and specifically for the principle of strict hereditary succession to a throne;^[2][8] Etymonline finds it in general use by 1836.^[8] In early Australia legitimacy was a colonial euphemism for having come to the colony as a convict, recorded from 1827.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1625 – lawfulness, conformity to rules or principles.^[2]
• 1641 – the fact of being a legitimate child.^[2]
• 1695 – genuineness (obsolete by 1808).^[2]
• 1812 – the lawful right to govern; hereditary succession to a throne.^[2][8]
• 1827 – Australian slang, having emigrated as a convict.^[2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being legitimate: being in accordance with the law or with accepted rules and principles, or being reasonable and justified: Critics questioned the legitimacy of the vote count.^[9][2]
2. The lawful right to govern or to hold power.^[2][9][3]
3. The legal status of a child born to parents married to each other.^[9][2][5]
4. (Australian slang, now rare) The fact of having come to Australia as a convict.^[2][10]

Word family

• nonlegitimacy

Related words

• legitimate
• illegitimacy
• legal
• loyal

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com