Lease/Life

A discussion of slang and the changes it undergoes.

On or Of?

Poll ended at Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:32 am

On
3
75%
Of
1
25%
 
Total votes: 4

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8013
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Lease/Life

Postby Slava » Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:32 am

Is the phrase:

A new lease of life

or

A new lease on life?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Audiendus
Wordmaster
Posts: 908
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK

Lease on/of life

Postby Audiendus » Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:27 pm

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.

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8013
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Postby Slava » Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:47 pm

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."
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bnjtokyo

Postby bnjtokyo » Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:27 am

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.

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Thu Aug 19, 2010 11:28 pm

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!
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


Return to “Slang”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests