What “Hereby” Means: Fans Dissect Taylor Swift’s Cryptic Clue and Find Two Genius Connections

In the most Taylor Swift news ever, the celeb is out here revealing ~hidden words~ in her songs amid the lead-up to The Tortured Poets Department. Confused? Basically, Taylor is hiding one word per day in her Apple Music lyrics—and the first word, “hereby,” was discovered this weekend in the song “Glitch.”

Now, you might think Swifties wouldn’t have much to go on with just one simple word, but you’d be incorrect because there are already several (!!!!) theories at play.

First of all, fans immediately clocked the fact that “hereby” is how Ariel’s contract to Ursula in The Little Mermaid begins. And considering Tay’s Tortured Poets song “But Daddy I Love Him” is a line from The Little Mermaid, it seems possible that “hereby” could be the start of a lyric from this song...and that the track could be about signing her voice away to someone else. 👀

Meanwhile, fans figured out that, per Merriam-Webster, the first known use of the word “hereby” was in the 13th century. That’s the THIRTEEN(TH) century.

And then there’s the fact that Tay’s word game started this weekend—specifically on April 13, which happens to be World Scrabble Day!

While we’re here, the second word from the musician’s game is “conduct,” which some Swifties think is further evidence that Tortured Poets is set up like a court case:

Damn. It’s truly alllll coming together. As ever, this has been Taylor Swift’s mind!

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It has to do with a group chat Joe has... 👀

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