Talk:light

having given birth

"Light" can also have the meaning of "having given birth", as in the title of the novel by William Faulkner "Light in August". — This comment was unsigned.

If this is true, we're still missing that sense... - -sche (discuss) 23:25, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

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I am editing the first definition, light as the stuff that we use for vision. Maybe someone can improve on my definition, which is longer than I would wish and perhaps too technical. I think it's important to

*  avoid the incorrect definition of light as a 'medium'
*  avoid reference to "the Sun and other very hot sources" as heat is not required for producing light, and the mechanisms for producing light belong in an encyclopaedia, not a dictionary
*  include mention of ultraviolet and infrared light as it is misleading to exclude such (anomalous) common usage. Alkhowarizmi (talk) 07:04, 26 January 2017 (UTC)

Lights meaning lungs

I've just added a pointer here to the fact that lights means lungs. Compare message and Wiktionary:Beer_parlour/2012/August#Template:in_the_plural. - -sche (discuss) 23:25, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

RFD discussion: October 2019–October 2020

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light

I'm not sure this really is an adverb. I had second thoughts after creating travel light (the usex was already there), I think this is actually adjectival. Consider also make light of, make light work of, and light engine which is a locomotive travelling light, without a load in the form of a train. DonnanZ (talk) 15:58, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure how feasible it is to describe someone as "light" in this sense, which seems to be the consequence of it being adjectival. If we saw someone at an airport with only one very small bag, would we say that s/he was "light"? "light" in "travel light" also seems to answer a "how" question, though unfortunately this is not always 100% conclusive. M-W dictionary lists it as an adverb. Another question is whether the purported adverbial sense exists in any context other than the phrase "travel light". If it doesn't, maybe we could avoid the question and treat "travel light" as an idiomatic set phrase without troubling over its grammatical explanation. I can think of perhaps "run light", as in "The locomotive is pulling well" / "Ah, that's because we're running light today". In this case "light" does seem adjectival, as we can say that the train (or load) is light. Hmmm. Mihia (talk) 17:00, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

I can easily see these as being ellipses of "travel (with) light (luggage/baggage)" and "we're running (with a) light (load/workload/cargo/weight) today" = adjectival Leasnam (talk) 06:22, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

My feeling is that if "travel light" means "travel with light luggage/baggage" then "light" is adverbial. This is because the "with ~" phrase is adverbial, and, if you like, the adjectivity cannot "transfer out of this". The only way I see "light" as being adjectival is if e.g. "He travels light" means that he is light. Mihia (talk) 00:11, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

• Keep. I have entered several citations for adverb senses (with help from Century). Also, travel light should probably be deleted since it is just SOP. -Mike (talk) 22:12, 31 October 2019 (UTC)
• Keep. - Dentonius (talk) 12:51, 4 October 2020 (UTC)

Kept. bd2412 T 03:37, 13 October 2020 (UTC)