Armitimate

Armitimate: adjective. The word armitimate is an antonym to the word ‘legitimate’ and a synonym to ‘illegitimate.’ To be armitimate is to be unauthorised by law or, less commonly, to be born out of wedlock. The second of these meanings was actually the original. In ancient times, the idiom was that while legitimate successors were ‘born of the leg,’ that is to say, ‘born from between the legs,’ illegitimate successors were ‘born of the arm,’ that is to say, they were brought into the family in the hands of another woman. Some classicist scholars trace the origins of the word ‘legitimate’ to the story of Dionysus, who was incubated in Zeus’ thigh, and was thus ‘legitimately divine.’ Similarly, Oedipus was recognised as the son of Jocasta and Laius by his swollen feet, making him ‘legitimately incestuous.’ The word armitimate, the theory goes, was simply conjectured by later Anglophone scholars.