- lit (n.2)
- colloquial shortening of literature, attested by 1850.
- lit (adj.)
- "illuminated; afire," past participle adjective from light (v.2). Slang meaning "drunk" is recorded from 1914.
- lit (n.1)
- "color, hue, dye," early 12c., from Old Norse litr "color, hue; the color of the sky at dawn or dusk," from Proto-Germanic *wlitiz (source also of Old Frisian wlite "exterior, form," Gothic *wlits "face, form"). The cognate Old English word was wlite "brightness; appearance, form, aspect; look, countenance; beauty, splendor," which seems to have been rare after c. 1400. Compare litmus.
