Talk:flashing light

The following information has failed Wiktionary's deletion process.

It should not be re-entered without careful consideration.

---

flashing light

"lights^[sic] used on police cars and other emergency vehicles". I think this is a specific example of how to use a flashing light, not what a flashing light is. A flashing light is a light which is flashing. Mglovesfun (talk) 13:30, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

• Yes, delete, if only for the crap definition. SemperBlotto (talk) 14:43, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Has potential as a translation target. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 00:21, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

If the definition is right, as "emergency vehicle lighting", then keep, it's not any light that flashes. I didn't know it was called so, though. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 00:39, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

• Keep outside CFI as a translation target, for single-word non-compound translations such as Czech maják, Russian маячок, and мигалка, and for French gyrophare (notice French gyro-, and phare). German Rundumkennleuchte is a compound, but one that I could not guess at from "flashing light", as "flashing" does not translate to "Rundumkenn", so is lexicographically interesting as well. --Dan Polansky (talk) 18:44, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

In Google Books this seems to mean warning lights and not necessarily an emergency vehicle. Delete. DAVilla 23:31, 27 April 2013 (UTC)

1. "An ambulance siren gets louder and louder; the plate-glass window at the front of the shopping centre fills with blue flashing light." (Drawing with Light, Julia Green - 2010)
2. "Before too long I could see a flashing light from an ambulance waiting at the lift station." (A Farewell to Skiing, Kurt Larson - 2002)
3. "Ramming down the road at 50, Ronnie and the rider could see in the extreme distance, a quarter to a half mile away, the ambulance's flashing light coming in the opposite direction." (Texas Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 3 - Magazine)
4. "It had already begun when they stumbled out of the woods together: ambulances and police, firemen in a red car with a flashing light." (The Light of Falling Stars, J. Robert Lennon - 1999). --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 00:14, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Delete. Might as well have an entry at green vegetable defined as "spinach". Equinox ◑ 00:19, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Very funny but that was a bad example, green onion is a vegetable, flashing light is a device, which can also be any light that flashes, that's why it has {{&lit}}. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 00:56, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Prove that that isn't just one example of a light flashing. Equinox ◑ 00:57, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

I have already said that it has both meanings - literal and idiomatic but when a police car races through the city with flashing lights on, this usage is idiomatic, because it means an electric warning device used on emergency vehicles, not just any light that flashes. --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 01:14, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Delete: Here's some cites:

"“Call Dispatch back,” she ordered, switching on both lights and siren." 2003, J. A. Jance, Partner in Crime

"Other road users are required to give way to emergency service vehicles when the driver uses flashing blue lights." 2009, Alena Hoye, The handbook of road safety measures

"When the assailant has reached a safe distance and is no longer a threat to you, a deafening 120dB siren and flashing lights will force him to flee your car, letting you recover it safely." Popular Mechanics - May 1994

[1] 2007, A. Hunsicker, The Fine Art of Executive Protection, says "Flashing warning lights and sirens... The installation and usage of flashing lights might require a special permit... Clear white, flashing LEDs ... cannot be mistaken as those of police or other emergency services"

"The flashing blue lights and siren send an unmistakable signal to every cell in your body, and dread settles down over your mind and emotions. You have been arrested by the long arm of the law." What a Man Wants, What a Woman Needs

"So I peek out the back window, and there's Officer Borsch's white car with his little portable flashing red light on top" Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher

So flashing lights, light, flashing blue lights, flashing red light, they're all used for the thing on the emergency vehicle, and flashing lights is also used for things on cars that aren't emergency vehicles.--Prosfilaes (talk) 02:58, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Delete per nom, I think. I do not subscribe to the notion that we need entries (translation targets!!1) for every unidiomatic English designation of every thing that any one of the world's several thousand languages happens to have an idiomatic term for. (Should I create an entry for three-year old buffalo and put native American languages' single-word terms for that creature in it?) - -sche (discuss) 03:53, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm a "flashing light", please don't delete me or give me a new name!

. Your example is very rare and quite ridiculous. I don't know if you can actually find a few real examples like this. I see many people here are OK with deleting English terms for well-known items, just because they are not written solid (in one word). Very sad, indeed. I didn't know before but "flashing light" is one of the names for such an item, not as rare or silly as a "three-year old buffalo" or other silliness.

So, what's the English term/terms for the thing in the image here (or similar signalling item) and why should it not be included in this dictionary? The flashing may be annoying, will delete it later. (All other terms don't exist either - emergency vehicle lighting, blue light, revolving light, rotating light, flashing beacon, etc.) --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 04:12, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

I also don’t think we should have translation targets for every word that one language has an idiomatic name for, but flashing light already idiomatic translations for several languages. Not enough for me to oppose deletion yet, though. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 21:18, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

What about the English language? Do you care that English (according to the English Wiktionary) doesn't have a word for this device? Why is white bear or green onion OK but flashing light is not? And how many languages should be enough for you to oppose deletion? --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 08:42, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

The English language doesn't have words for many things; do we need an entry for younger sister because it's lexicalized in many languages? We don't have a word for the lights that flash that happen to be on police cars because saying flashing lights is good enough, and if we need to be clear they're on a police car we say "police flashing lights" or "flashing lights on a police car". A black bear is a bear that is not a brown bear even though a large percentage of them are brown; you can't say the same for flashing lights, which are lights that flash.--Prosfilaes (talk) 09:34, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Regarding: "Do you care that English (according to the English Wiktionary) doesn't have a word for this device?" not our job to coin new words for things. Mglovesfun (talk) 09:42, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Since we are descriptivists, our job is not making sure English has words for everything, but describing everything it does have words for. A white bear is the name a specific species; if you paint a brown bear with white paint it’s still a brown bear and not a white bear. Same with green onions: a regular onion painted green is not a green onion. On the other hand, a flashing light is just a light that is flashing, whether it’s on top of a police car or in a nightclub or wherever. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 13:25, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

The flashing light can be broken, switched off and painted over and it will still be called a flashing light. The fact that the term can be used in the night club or on a mobile phone or other places just tells me that there are other senses of the term. There are a few common synonyms, among them a "flasher". --Anatoli ^{(обсудить}/^вклад) 02:51, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

• Looking at the hits for "flashing lights" on Google Books, it seems flashing lights can also mean police and paparazzi, but someone will need to comb through the hits to find to cite these senses, and I can't be bothered. ---> Tooironic (talk) 01:00, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
• Delete. When flashing light is used in the context of emergency vehicles it is implied that it is a flashing light of a particular type, and a particular colour dependent on the country and service referred to. However, I will take some convincing that police flashing light and disco flashing light are not referring to exactly the same object in different contexts. In the UK identical green lights are used by doctors and orange ones as warnings on building sites and factories. The term flashing light merely means a light that is flashing. It's type and colour is either explicit in the text or implied by context, not by the term flashing light. SpinningSpark 02:24, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

deleted -- Liliana • 13:18, 29 July 2013 (UTC)