Legitimacy is the quality of being accepted as rightful. Question the legitimacy, democratic legitimacy, legitimacy of the vote.
It is granted rather than claimed: a government has legitimacy when the governed accept its right to rule, which is why losing it is more dangerous than losing an argument. Legality is a separate thing — a legal act can lack legitimacy. Note that the Latin means lawful, from lex, a law.
1nounlegitimacyThe quality of being accepted as rightful.
“After the rigged election, few people accepted the legitimacy of the new government.”
legitimacy is a quality of rightfulness.
Latin
lēgitimō — to make legal
Medieval Latin
lēgitimātus
Middle English
legitimat
English
legitimate
English, today
legitimacy
From legitimate + -acy. legitimate comes from Middle English legitimat, legytymat, from Medieval Latin lēgitimātus, perfect passive participle of Latin lēgitimō (“to make legal”) (see -ate), from Latin lēgitimus (“lawful”), originally "fixed by law, in line with the law," from Latin lēx (“law”). Originally "lawfully begotten". The noun was derived from the adjective within English or earlier by substantivization (see -ate), the verb from the adjective by conversion (see -ate).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA