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▪ I. legitimate, a.|lɪˈdʒɪtɪmət|
Also 5–6 legyttymat(e, 6 -ytymat, -ittimat.
[ad. med.L. lēgitimāt-us, pa. pple. of lēgitimāre to declare to be lawful, to cause to be regarded as lawful offspring, f. L. lēgitimus lawful, f. lēg-, lēx law.
Etymologically, the word expresses a status which has been conferred or ratified by some authority; = legitimated. In English, however, it has taken the place of the older legitime, and even in the earliest examples shows no trace of the original participial sense.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of a child: Having the status of one lawfully begotten; entitled to full filial rights. Said also of a parent, and of lineal descent. (The only sense in Johnson.)
According to English common law, all children are legitimate who are born in lawful wedlock, and no others. According to the civil and canon law, a child born of unmarried parents who might at the time lawfully contract marriage becomes legitimate if his parents afterwards are lawfully married. By the Legitimacy Acts of 1926 and 1959 a child born of unmarried parents becomes legitimate if they subsequently marry.
1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxv. 253 This Kynge Wyllyam vsed alwey lemmans, wherfore he dyed without issu legyttymat. 1555Eden Decades 137 The children of their owne wyues they counte to bee not legitimate. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. v. v. Wks. 1856 I. 141 Thy true begotten, most legitimate And loved issue. 1683Brit. Spec. 173 By Lineal and Legitimate Descent the true and unquestionable Heir. 1754–62Hume Hist. Eng., Hen. III, II. 54 The common law had deemed all those bastards who were born before wedlock: By the canon law they were legitimate. 1827Jarman Powell's Devises (ed. 3) II. 347 A person who at the date of the will was dead, leaving..no legitimate children. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 62 The offspring of his female slave..if begotten by him..he may recognise as his own legitimate child. 1882A. Macfarlane Consanguin. 4 Legitimate co-parent of a child.
†b. transf. Genuine, real: opposed to ‘spurious’. Obs.
1551Bible Apocrypha To Rdr., They are not receaued nor taken as legyttymate and leafull, as wel of the Hebrues as of the whole Churche. 1634T. Johnson Parey's Chirurg. xxvi. vii. (1678) 633 By the Taste..we..distinguish the true legitimate [Medicins] from the adulterate. 1699Bentley Phal. 327 Mr. B. maintains Astypala to be a legitimate word, because we read it ἀστυπάχη in the present copy of Scylax. 1804Europ. Mag. XLV. 347/2 The above remarks do not apply to what I shall call collections of legitimate remains. 1818Todd, Legitimate..2. Genuine; not spurious: as, a legitimate work, the legitimate production of such an author.
2. a. Conformable to law or rule; sanctioned or authorized by law or right; lawful; proper.
1638Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 13 An evill that should last so long, might in some sort seeme to be made legitimate. 1645Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1738 I. 226 The Text therfore uses this phrase, that they shall be one flesh, to justify and make legitimate the rites of Marriage-bed. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. 257 A Legitimate Husband. 1832W. Irving Alhambra I. 79 They [Moors] are a nation..without a legitimate country or a name. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 238 What would, under ordinary circumstances, be justly condemned as persecution, may fall within the bounds of legitimate selfdefence. 1852H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 436 There is..a legitimate way of influencing the will. 1859J. Cumming Ruth ix. 152 Its ancient and legitimate owner.
b. Normal, regular; conformable to a recognized standard type; † spec. of a gun (cf. bastard a. 6 a); † of a disease (= exquisite). In Sporting, applied to flat-racing as opposed to hurdleracing or steeplechasing. the legitimate drama: the body of plays, Shakespearian or other, that have a recognized theatrical and literary merit; also ellipt. (Theatr. slang) the legitimate. Also in other collocations. So as n., an actor of legitimate drama.
1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. 64 Gunners call them Legitimate Pieces, as have due length of their Chase, according to the height of their bores; Bastard Pieces are such as have shorter Chases, than the Proportion of their Bore doth require. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. v. 161 The Physician must not use astringents, in a legitimate Burning fever. 1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v. Delivery, A legitimate delivery is that which happens at the just term, i.e. in the tenth lunar month. 1799Sporting Mag. XV. 135/2 A lady to whom the public are so much indebted for the support which the legitimate drama has received from her exertions, and who..has disdained the pantomine and spectacle to which the German muse so often stoops. 1812Theatrical Inquisitor Oct. I. 72 Mr. E treads closely upon the heels of the legitimate stage. 1821Byron Mar. Fal. Pref. 18 note, While I was in the sub-committee of Drury Lane Theatre..we did our best to bring back the legitimate drama. 1838Dickens Let. 16 Jan. (1965) I. 355 Let the Legitimate Drama put this, and Joan of Arc..into her pipe. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 468 Tillotson still keeps his place as a legitimate English classic. 1877Era Almanack 97 Always willing to patronise the legitimate. 1884Yates Recoll. I. v. 211 My youthful admiration of Shakespeare and the legitimate drama. 1888Sportsman 28 Nov. (Farmer), The winding up of the legitimate season. 1909P. G. Williams in Sat. Even. Post 5 June 17/2 The vaudeville actor is much more thrifty than his colleague in the legitimate. 1933P. Godfrey Back-Stage xvi. 207 The principal comedian of Have a Nibble..scandalizes the ‘legitimates’ by discarding the jacket of his sprightly plus-four suit. 1947N. Marsh Final Curtain v. 84, I haven't got the wind for dancing..and the ‘legitimate’ gives me a pain in the neck. 1952N.Y. Herald Tribune 28 Aug. 16/7 A revision of New York City's building code to spur the construction of new legitimate theaters. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 24 Nor is it [sc. the city] avoiding the inevitable responsibility of building a smaller legitimate house. 1972N.Y. Times 3 Nov. 1/1 The new hotel would include..a legitimate theater. 1975Scottish Field Jan. 9/1 With his feet now firmly planted in both acting spheres—the so-called legitimate theatre and the pantomime lark—this young⁓looking veteran [sc. Rikki Fulton]..feels fit to accept any professional challenge.
c. Of a sovereign's title: Resting on the strict principle of hereditary right. Hence, said of a sovereign, a kingdom, etc.
1812Niles' Reg. I. 404/2 The ‘legitimate’ sovereigns of Russia, Austria and Prussia. 1821H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) I. 8 We like the style of the Legitimate poets, as we respect the court and Legitimate monarchs. 1847Disraeli Tancred iii. vi, But in these days a great capitalist has deeper roots than a sovereign prince, unless he is very legitimate. 1860Sat. Rev. 14 Apr. 457/1 It is not in irony, but in sober earnest, that we express our belief, that any throne is, in practice, called legitimate which has not had the consent of the nation to its..existence. 1885Fairbairn Catholicism iii. (1899) 96 In literature it [the Catholic Revival] appeared as Romanticism, in politics as legitimate and theocratic theory.
d. Sanctioned by the laws of reasoning; logically admissible or inferrible.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) x. 221/2 If the first principles be clear and evident, and every syllogism in some legitimate mode or figure, the conclusion of the whole must infallibly be admitted. 1814D. Stewart Hum. Mind II. iii. §1. 247 Every such process of reasoning..may be resolved into a series of legitimate syllogisms. 1840Mill Diss. & Disc. (1875) I. 397 Both [methods] were legitimate logical processes. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. iii. ii. (1874) 409 We have followed them [principles] to their legitimate consequences. 1855Prescott Philip II, I. ii. ix. 249 This bloody catastrophe was a legitimate result of the policy which he advised.
e. In Jazz colloq., designating ‘serious’ music as distinct from jazz or popular music.
1927Melody Maker Apr. 359/2 The number lends itself exceptionally well to the symphonic treatment it has been given, the orchestration is very fine and the modulated passages and general arrangement make it, although a little too ‘legitimate’ for dancing, perfect from a concert point of view. 1933Fortune Aug. 94 Other jazz heroes such as the Dorseys..have become more or less legitimate musicians for radio purposes. 1946Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues (1957) xvii. 341 The New Orleans drum patterns..were closest to ‘legitimate’ music. 1969New Yorker 20 Dec. 52/3 It would have been interesting if he had made similar measurements during a performance by a ‘commercial’—that is, a jazz or dance-band—player..to compare with those of a ‘legitimate’, or symphonic, player.
†3. quasi-adv. Obs.
1578Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 427 Both he and his chyldren of his body legytymat begotten.
B. n.
1. a. A legitimate child.
1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 97, I had rather we had many legittimats than many illegittimates. 1842C. Whitehead R. Savage (1845) III. vi. 381 Their legitimates do them small honour, sometimes. 1865Dublin Univ. Mag. I. 8 Legitimates and natural children were brought up..or shaken up together.
b. A legitimate sovereign. Also, one who supports or advocates the title of such sovereigns. Cf. A. 2 c.
1821H. Coleridge Ess., On Parties in Poetry (1851) I. 6 Waller, a true Legitimate in politics. 1830Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 268 The experiment of what has been termed constitutional government, has been tried and failed. The legitimates refused this, while they might have had it. 1847Emerson Repr. Men, Napoleon Wks. (Bohn) I. 374 No longer the throne was occupied..by a small class of legitimates.
†c. Austral. slang. (See quot. and cf. legitimacy 4.) Obs.
1827P. Cunningham 2 Yrs. N.S. Wales II. xxiv. 116 Our society is divided into circles as in England... Next, we have the legitimates, or cross-breds,—namely, such as have legal reasons for visiting this colony; and the illegitimates, or such as are free from that stigma.
†2. Something to which one has a legitimate title. Obs. rare—1.
1649Milton Eikon. (1770) 31 Many princes have been rigorous in laying taxes on their subjects by the head, but of any King heretofore that made a levy upon their wit, and seized it as his own legitimate, I have not whom beside to instance.
Add:[2.] e. In extended use: valid or acceptable; justifiable, reasonable.
1847Sporting Life 28 Aug. 16/2 The system of adopting leggism as a legitimate part and parcel of horse-racing is one that must soon explode. 1864Sat. Rev. XVIII. 445/2 Objurgating impotence has always been a legitimate subject for ridicule. 1894Daily News 17 Jan. 3/1 The most nosey visitor has no legitimate ground for offence from organic causes. 1934G. Greene It's a Battlefield ii. 103 They were careful never to give him reason for legitimate complaints; they sprang to his orders as they would never have sprung to the orders of a man they liked. 1958P. Gibbs Curtains of Yesterday xvii. 143, I have a perfectly legitimate reason for coming.., but what's yours, old boy? 1995Daily Tel. 14 Mar. 17/7 It is legitimate to abridge a classic, so long as it is done with tact and sympathy,..just as it is legitimate to novelise an original screenplay.
▪ II. legitimate, v.|lɪˈdʒɪtɪmeɪt|
[f. med.L. lēgitimāt-, ppl. stem of lēgitimāre (see prec.). Cf. F. légitimer, Sp., Pg. legitimar, It. legitimare.]
1. trans. To render (a bastard) legitimate; to establish the legitimacy of (a person) by an authoritative declaration or decree.
1597Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1631) 280 With the Popes auouch, who legitimated him. 1663Pepys Diary 9 Nov., It is much talked of that the king intends to legitimate the Duke of Monmouth. 1701De Foe Power Coll. Body People Misc. (1703) 149 Another Parliament Legitimated Queen Elizabeth. 1809J. Adams Wks. (1854) IX. 317 What is impressment of seamen?.. No parliament ever dared to legitimate or sanction it. 1818Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) III. 75 One object of which was to legitimate the duke of Lancaster's ante-nuptial children. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. viii. 176 The children were according to the law..legitimated by the subsequent marriage of their parents.
fig.1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus ii. 15 Straining their wittes to legitimate bastardly broods of opinions. a1640Jackson Creed xi. xviii. §5 The seeds of this accursed sin are more than legitimated, ranked amongst the essential parts of honour.
2. To render lawful or legal, to give a lawful or legal character to; to authorize by legal enactment. In early use, To give (a person) a legal claim to (something).
1531Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. xlv. (1532) 115 Whether the Pope may legittimate one to temporall thynges. 1586Warner Albion's Eng. ii. lxvii. 285 With Marriage, that legitimates our Propagation. 1658T. Wall Charac. Enemies Ch. 65 These men can do more then God, they can legitimate any wickedness. 1715Bentley Serm. x. 348 Nay, a particular edition shall be legitimated and consecrated. 1798W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XXV. 566 Their feudal laws, by legitimating orderly gradations of oppression, completed the misfortune of the times. 1869Pall Mall G. 1 Sept. 10 He not only supplies himself with a magazine of arms, but with a portfolio of judges' orders legitimating their use.
3. To affirm or show to be legitimate; to authorize or justify by word or example; to serve as justification for.
1611W. Sclater Key (1629) 164 [An hypocrite] countenanceth, yea, legitimateth, wilfull rebellion against the law of God. 1651Jer. Taylor Holy Dying iii. §8 (1727) 108 Our Blessed Lord was pleased to legitimate fear to us, by his agony and prayers in the garden. 1681J. Flavel Meth. Grace xxvii. 466 The Gospel legitimates no hopes of salvation, but such as are accompanied with serious efforts of mortification. 1713Nelson Life Bp. Bull 292 All such terms and Phrases as are not expressly legitimated by the sacred writers. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. xvii. (1840) 306 Necessity legitimates my advice; for it is the only way to save our lives. c1750Shenstone Economy i. 179 Unless Economy's consent Legitimate expense. c1820Fuseli in Lect. Paint. xii. (1848) 557 Sculpture lent her hand to legitimate the sacrilege. 1824–9Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 I. 215 National safety legitimates all means employed upon it. 1846Trench Mirac. Introd. (1862) 4 He warns him that Pharaoh will require him to legitimate his mission.
Hence leˈgitimated ppl. a.
1670Cotton Espernon ii. viii. 415 Gabrielle a legitimated Daughter of France, one of his own natural Sisters. 1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6161/1 Paris... The King has settled the Ranks and Honours of the legitimated Princes. 1799W. Tooke View Russian Emp. II. 130 According to a legitimated statement already mentioned. 1874Green Short Hist. vi. §1. 267 Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, a legitimated son of John of Gaunt.
Add: legitimating ppl. a. and vbl. n.
1970Internat. & Compar. Law Q. XIX. 330 A person whose father was domiciled both at the time of the child's birth and at the time of the legitimating event in a country by the law of which he became legitimated. 1973Listener 27 Dec. 891/1 The great legitimating myths which—sociologists suppose—once gave shape, order and coherence to our lives. 1981Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Feb. 163/1 The legitimating of art as a set of professions and industries maintains a caste system in contemporary society. 1991Jrnl. S. Afr. Stud. XVII. 408 A legitimating marriage became possible only if proof could be produced that the first wife's behaviour would have warranted a divorce or legal separation. |