Timeline for "Time is of the essence"… of what?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 16, 2011 at 5:51 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | Absolutely. The use of articles is sometimes very difficult to explain or trace back to some mechanism we understand. That is why I find them fascinating. | |
| Jan 16, 2011 at 5:45 | comment | added | Kosmonaut | @Cerberus: Right. I think if we got hung up on the the here, there are many other uses of the in similar situations that would be tough to explain. Like the US-English "I need to go to the hospital", for example. It does not imply that you must be talking about a specific hospital, but it is there nonetheless. | |
| Jan 16, 2011 at 0:16 | comment | added | Cerberus - Reinstate Monica | I am not sure what you mean by "structurally" in this context, but I agree that the use of "of" is clear—I'd call it a genitive of quality—, and that "the" changes nothing about this. Even so, if you ever come across an explanation for the mysterious article... | |
| Jan 13, 2011 at 17:23 | comment | added | Kosmonaut | @ShreevatsaR: Mysterious as it may be, I don't think the presence of the makes the phrase structurally unclear with respect to how it relates to the adjectival form. | |
| Jan 13, 2011 at 16:53 | comment | added | ShreevatsaR | Maybe I'm too sleepy, but I don't find it structurally straightforward. As Cerberus asks, why is there a "the" in "of the essence"? We don't say "something of the substance", "statement of the fact", etc. (And apparently many do say, correctly or incorrectly, "time is of essence", without the.) | |
| Jan 13, 2011 at 16:17 | history | answered | Kosmonaut | CC BY-SA 2.5 |