Lit Slang

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is David from Palmyra, Indiana.

Hey, David, welcome to the show, Southern Indiana. I know it well.

What can we do for you?

I just have a question about the word lit, L-I-T.

I’ve been seeing it ever since the game Pokemon Go came out.

I’m in some Facebook groups for the game, and people talk about certain areas of town or whatever being lit, meaning like there’s a lot going on there or like there’s a lot of people that are playing the game or whatever.

They call it lit. Say it’s lit.

And the only time, honestly, that I’ve ever heard lit as a slang was to describe someone who’s using marijuana.

And so what I was wondering is where that came from and how that became used in this context.

I’ve seen it as well.

Yeah, we do Pokemon Go in my house.

I’m a level 22 mystic.

Thanks.

What level are you, David?

I’m level 21. I’m on Mystic also.

It’s hard, though, to get at that other 100,000 points, right?

To get up one more level.

Yeah, I’m almost 22, level 22, so hopefully this week.

Gosh, you guys are neck and neck.

Whatever all that means.

I think you’re right.

It looks like, as far as I can tell from all the slang dictionaries and what I understand about lit in general, that the drug uses and the party uses of lit are directly related to the lit use in Pokemon Go.

And lit basically here means turned on.

Like if you put a lure down at a PokéStop, which means that you tell the PokéStop, I’m looking at Martha.

Thank you for educating me.

Tell the PokéStop, I’m going to pay a little bit of money for this little bit of lure to assign to this place on the map so that more Pokémon will come here.

And everyone who’s gathered around this place can all catch these Pokémon.

And so it’s turned on.

It’s literally turned on in that you’ve activated the lure.

And it’s figuratively turned on in that you’ve created a place for a party because I know lit from parties.

If a party is lit, I mean, it’s happening.

Like the music is good and the people are good and the food is good and the drinks are good and everything is good.

It’s turned on.

But in all these cases, we’re all going from a place of inactivity or a moment of where not much is going on to something where there’s a lot of activity and a lot is going on.

And ultimately, of course, it all goes back just to turning on a light or lighting a lantern.

Right.

And so it’s pretty universal then.

That’s what I was wondering, too, because I noticed I’m in Facebook groups for Pokemon Go for Louisville and Indianapolis because I’m in Indianapolis a lot for work.

And also in Montreal because I lived in Montreal for a while and I really like it.

And even in the Montreal group in English and in French, they’ll still say that it’s lit.

Oh, really?

They’re not talking about a bed?

No, like it’ll say, like, c’est vraiment lit.

And, like, it’s really lit tonight.

They pronounce that to me.

Like, everything will be in French, but that word is in English.

That’s cool.

Oh, okay.

Got it.

I’m not surprised.

I’m not surprised.

Yeah, that’s a very understandable connection there.

Anyway, yeah, so it’s all connected.

I think most of our listeners, if they know lit in the slang sense, they probably all know it from the parties, though.

Probably not from Pokemon as popular as that game has been.

Okay.

Yeah, because that’s what I mean.

Like I’d heard it before, but it wasn’t very common at all.

And now it’s like I hear it all the time with the game.

And like I’ve started to hear it or like even use it in other contexts, too, just because I’ve been seeing it so much.

It has been a slang term for being high or being drunk for decades, 50, 60, 70 years at least.

And now it’s found its way into French.

That’s fantastic.

David, thanks for this field report.

We appreciate it.

Thanks, David.

Thank you.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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