Wouldn’t expect to come across “low key” in Chomsky’s writing.

Low-key has long meant subtle or downplayed. Using it to mean ‘somewhat’ or ‘I am reluctant to admit it but…’ is the newer usage. The governor decided to make a low-key entrance to the capitol. vs These fries are low-key tasty.

The modern usage didn't come out of nowhere!

I am surprised too! I always thought that *low key* was informal. Can someone please tell me if it is acceptable to use *low key* in business emails now? I really want to! :D

I saw an interview with Princess Anne conducted in the early 70s and she said "low key". Not in the way Zoomers say it today, though. She said someone was "low key" about something, if I remember correctly. People have been saying "low key" for decades.

Why?

"I'm in such a low key with drinking nothing but small table ninepenny this last week or two." - from "The Mayor of Casterbridge" by Thomas Hardy, **1886**

Why not?

Not Gen Z thinking they invented common English phrases But seriously, the adjective use (a low-key party) is common English; only using it as an adverb (I low-key want to throw a party) is slangy and really just replaces kinda/sorta

What are you reading on? Is that a Kindle?

This guy s what happens when young people think that they invented something 🫤

I understand why you’re surprised, but ‘low-key’ meaning “understated” goes back to the 20th century, and to the 19th with the meaning “dull”. Its 21st century meaning of “somewhat” isn’t where it began.

"Low-key" is something that people have been saying for years, it's not just something the young made up. The young and using it in a slightly different way, and they're using it a lot more often, than in days of yore, but the phrase has a long history and was welcome in the most elevated registers. Now the antonym "high-key", I think that one may be a neologism.

Low-key is nothing new or especially informal. It’s been turned into a slang adverb, which is something else entirely.

Low key has been a non-slang phrase for many, many decades prior to its current slang usage - and the meanings are not quite the same.