Talk:in a jiffy

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Latest comment: 15 years ago by 63.95.64.254 in topic in a jiffy
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The following information passed a request for deletion.

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.


in a jiffy

[edit]

Entry claims idiomaticity but I disagree. I'll be there in a jiffy, in a minute, in a few seconds, in just a tick, in half a mo, in a year or two. It's just use of the existing sense at in ("after a period of time"). Equinox 15:21, 20 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

Agreed. Delete. See also google books:"for a jiffy" e.g.—msh210 16:51, 20 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
I’ve never heard "for a jiffy" and would think anyone who said or wrote it a foreigner. in a jiffy is an extremely common adverb and we should have it. Keep. —Stephen 20:37, 20 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Do you think it's somehow distinct from my other examples above (in a minute etc.), or do you perhaps think that those other examples deserve entries? What is the difference? Equinox 23:52, 20 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Keep per Stephen G. Brown. msh210's link has demonstrated that for some speakers, (deprecated template usage) jiffy means "(colloquial) A very short, unspecified length of time." (as our entry for it says), but personally, I'd never encountered that sense outside of this expression (which is common in the Midwest) and a few proper nouns, and until now it never occurred to me that Jiffy Lube's name was trying to convey something. Stephen's comment tells me that his experience is similar. —RuakhTALK 00:16, 21 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Keep. Idiomaticity seems clear to me as has been demonstrated in that the word jiffy is virtually non-existent outside of this phrase. __meco 11:13, 21 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
For something to "take a jiffy" is very common. Equinox 22:09, 23 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Hmmm, I've never heard it. I would say semi-strong keep if in a jiffy is the origin of the meaning of jiffy, if the phrase had existed before the word was used independently, although I'm honestly not sure how we handle those situations. Otherwise semi-weak keep because jiffy is less well known and therefore could have contextual information that differs from that of the phrase. 63.95.64.254 02:48, 24 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Strong keep per meco. As I've said elsewhere, this tendency of treating words/senses which only occur in one or two set phrases by defining them at the words' entries and deleting those set phrases as SoP's is possibly understandable but certainly anything but helpful to a user. --Duncan 12:48, 21 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Strong keep. An idiomatic prepositional phrase. -- ALGRIF talk 17:38, 27 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Keep, as above. Mglovesfun 23:46, 27 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

Kept. 63.95.64.254 00:21, 31 March 2009 (UTC)Reply