Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > rec.puzzles > #27921

Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ...

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

Show all headers | View raw

Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net> posted:

> On Sat, 06 Jun 2026 20:37:35 GMT, James Dow Allen
> <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:
> 
> >I'm not sure how best to treat "make light of."  Is it short for
> >"make light work of"?
> 
> "... make light of" an obligation to Doyle/Holmes is to treat it
> as not very serious. (When do you have to deal with the debt
> at all?)
> 
> On the other hand, I can't understand how "make light work of"
> fits at all. 

Yes.  I just wondered how the phrase should be diagrammed.  A transitive
verb is normally followed by a noun, not an adjective.  We can just
treat "make light" as a unitary verb, but what if we want to break it
down word by word?

FWIW, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/make_light_of informs us with:
> ...
> Etymology
> From "Make light work of". 

Back to rec.puzzles | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... "HenHanna" <HenHanna@Posting.from.CsiPh> - 2026-06-06 14:23 +0000
  Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-06-06 20:37 +0000
    Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net> - 2026-06-06 23:02 -0400
      Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-06-07 09:18 +0000
        Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net> - 2026-06-07 05:37 -0400
    Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-07 06:29 +0100

csiph-web