

Chuffey with looks of sharp hostility, and to defy him with many other ironical remarks, uttered in that low key which commonly denotes suppressed indignation.” Charles Dickens even used the term in this way in his 1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit in the following quote: In the early 19th century, this term meant of a low pitch. Where does the term low-key come from? According to Dictionary, this term has musical origins, and originally characterized something that has a deeper, more muted, or darker tonal register. What is the origin of the phrase low key? This list of translations of the word understated is provided by Word Hippo. These are often formed when two words have the same root or language of origin.

These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that retain a similar look, sound and meaning. You may notice that many of these translations of low key look and sound similar to the phrase low key. There are many different languages that have their own translations of low key, but these are more often translated as the word understated since low key is an English slang term. Low-key is also used in lighting and photography to describe a high lighting ratio of the fill light to create dark colours and a predominance of dark grey tones and areas of contrast. You can “lowkey wanna do” something, which means that you are not tied to an idea but are interested in doing it. Many things can be examples of low-key, like low key crushes, a low-key jump, a low-key Friday night, a low-key party, a low-key wedding, a low-key guy, a low-key crush, a low-key end result, and more. This term has been used for a long time, but is popularly used as an adjective or adverb by young people on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter nowadays. According to Collins English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, the term low key, also spelled low-key or lowkey, means understated or on a small scale.
