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Lease/Life

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:32 am
by Slava
Is the phrase:

A new lease of life

or

A new lease on life?

Lease on/of life

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:27 pm
by Audiendus
I am surprised that the previous poll on this subject (two years ago in the Grammar section) went 4-0 in favour of "on". I have always heard and said "of". Google reveals 86,000 instances of "of" and 66,000 of "on".

Incidentally, the phrase (in either form) may be a bit of a cliché, but I wouldn't call it slang.

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:47 pm
by Slava
Good catch, Audiendus. I'd completely forgotten that I'd done this poll before. Sad that of all the "registered" users only 4 chimed in.

What made me post the poll was seeing "of" in a BBC article on the Internet. Perhaps this on/of question is one of locality. I'm in America, you're in the UK. I go for "on," you go for "of."

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:27 am
by bnjtokyo
It looks like Slava has it right.

My Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, published in the UK, gives the phrase as "a new lease of life"

My American Heritage Dictionary, published, naturally, in the US, gives the phrase as "a new lease on life"

To me, "on" makes more sense because if I leased, for example, a car, I would say "I have a lease on a car" or "The lease on the car will expire next month."

To say "The lease of the car will expire next month" seems most unnatural.

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 11:28 pm
by Stargzer
I would say "on," but I can see where "of" can come from:
Noun:
The lease on the care will expire next month.

Verb:
The leasing of the car will expire next month.
The lease(ing) of the car will expire next month.
Perhaps it's a matter of whether you use "lease" as a noun (on) or a verb (of).

Then again, what do I know? I was a science major!