Illegitimateness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of being without lawful or recognized legitimacy
2. A condition characterized by the absence of official legal status or acceptance
3. The state of not being valid or authorized according to established rules or standards

Etymology: "Illegitimateness" is simply "illegitimate" with the suffix "-ness" added, and the combination is the whole story. The base word "illegitimate" comes from the Latin "illegitimus," meaning "not lawful," built from the negative prefix "in-" (here assimilated to "il-") and "legitimus," "lawful," which itself rests on "lex," "law." So the word's core idea is a failure to conform to law or rule. The suffix "-ness" is an old Germanic formation, attached to adjectives to turn a quality into a noun. English has used it since Old English, and it remains productive, which is why writers can coin a noun like this on demand whenever they want to talk about the state of being illegitimate. Here that state is the absence of validity, whether a claim, document, argument or authority that fails to meet the standards it should.

Synonyms: illegitimacy, unlawfulness, illicitness, invalidity, unacceptability

Antonyms: legitimacy, lawfulness, validity, acceptability, authenticity