It may be one of the biggest hits of the nineties as well as possibly the greatest debuts of all time, but did we ever pause to wonder what the phrase "Hit me baby, one more time" actually meant? 

Because, well, it is a weird sentence.

Some speculated if it was a reference perhaps to a kinky sexual fantasy or whether poor Brit was suffering from domestic abuse. 

Well, we need not speculate anymore as the songwriters have finally revealed exactly the thought process behind this now infamous lyric – and it's totally innocent.

According to new book The Song Machine by John Seabrook, the writers of the tune were in fact Swedish and they thought that the word "hit" was actually slang for "call". 

So in fact, Britney simply wanted her boy crush to phone her up sometime. 

Yep, according to the book, songwriters Max Martin and Yami Racoub came up with the phrase simply out of a language barrier. Perhaps the writers were referring to the phrase "hit me up", which unfortunately does not make much sense if you take out the "up". 

Apparently, as the Independent reports, the song was originally intended for girl group TLC who turned it down over it those questionable lyrics.

"I was like, I like the song, but do I think it’s a hit? Was I going to say ‘Hit me baby, one more time’? Hell no!" said former TLC member, T-Boz in 2013. 

It seems that this wasn't an issue for Brit who was just dying to make her stamp on the music world. However, record label bosses did change the title to simply …Baby One More Time to avoid any controversy. 

Well, we are glad that the song turned out as it did because "Call me baby, one more time" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.