Legitimate vs Literal - What's the difference?
legitimate | literal |
In accordance with the law or established legal forms and requirements; lawful.
*
Conforming to known principles, or established or accepted rules or standards; valid.
* (rfdate) Macaulay
Authentic, real, genuine.
(senseid)Lawfully begotten, i.e., born to a legally married couple.
Relating to hereditary rights.
To make legitimate, lawful, or valid; especially, to put in the position or state of a legitimate person before the law, by legal means.
Exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.
* Hooker
Following the letter or exact words; not free; not taking liberties.
(uncommon) Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.
* Johnson
(of a person) Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative; matter-of-fact.
(programming) A value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.
(logic) A propositional variable or the negation of a propositional variable.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_%28logic%29]
As adjectives the difference between legitimate and literal
is that legitimate is in accordance with the law or established legal forms and requirements; lawful while literal is exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.As a verb legitimate
is to make legitimate, lawful, or valid; especially, to put in the position or state of a legitimate person before the law, by legal means.As a noun literal is
a value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.legitimate
English
Etymology 1
From . Originally "lawfully begotten," from (etyl) legitimer and directly fromAdjective
(en adjective)- legitimate''' reasoning; a '''legitimate standard or method
- Tillotson still keeps his place as a legitimate English classic.
- legitimate''' poems of Chaucer; '''legitimate inscriptions
Synonyms
(checksyns) * lawful, legal, rightfulAntonyms
* illegitimate, falseEtymology 2
Legal Latin, from legitimatus, past participle of (legitimo). See above for antecedentsVerb
(legitimat)Usage notes
* Forms of (legitimize) are about twice as common as forms of the verb legitimate in the US. * Forms of legitimate are somewhat more common than the forms of the verbs (legitimize) and (legitimise) in the UK combined.Synonyms
* legitimizeDerived terms
* delegitimateExternal links
* ----literal
Alternative forms
* litteral (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- The literal translation is “hands full of bananas” but it means empty-handed.
- a middle course between the rigour of literal translation and the liberty of paraphrasts
- A literal reading of the law would prohibit it, but that is clearly not the intent.
- a literal equation
- The literal notation of numbers was known to Europeans before the ciphers.
